There's No Place like Home
by Rinjii Harayumi
Summary: Following the lives of the members of Team 7 as they begin to learn who they are and, when all seems hopeless, come to realize that there really is no place like home. SakuraSasuke in later chapters. Please read and review!
1. Friendship may be what guides us

Hello and welcome to my very first Naruto fic! Well, it's actually my first fic, but...

So I would like to make clear that I'm going to try as best I can to keep the charaters as much as themselves as possible for the duration of this story. As for this fic, I'm not sure where it's headed but I have high hopes for it! I will definitely continue to write it until it's finished.

Disclaimer: Evidently I own **not** Naruto, but it would be nice if we all owned something like it, ne?

Anywho, onto the story!

Enjoy,

Rinjii Harayumi

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**There's No Place like Home**

**Chapter 1**

**Friendship may be what guides us**

"No! No! No! Not like that Naruto!" yelled Kakashi from the base of the tree he had decided to lean against. His precious book was held firmly between the fingers of his left hand while his right hand made frantic gestures in the air. Kakashi was, obviously upset once again, with Naruto Uzumaki; the prankster of Konoha. Although Naruto was tired from their latest mission, which consisted of a check-up trip to the Land of Waves, he was still in tip-top shape to make training a little more, shall we say _interesting_.

It was yet another hot day in Konoha, the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Unfortunately for team seven that being the team made up of Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha, Kakashi, their instructor had decided that they were a week behind in training. Because the trip to check up on how everyone living within the Land of Waves was doing took an extra five days out of their schedule, Kakashi was not very pleased. So, today they were going to make up for slacking off. Currently all four were on the training grounds, Kakashi leading them in some basic Jutsu exercises to help replenish their under-used minds.

"But Sensei, I'm doing it right! I know I am!" Naruto whined. They were practicing the illusion jutsu.

"If you're doing it right Naruto, then explain to me _why_ I keep seeing your sexy jutsu!" Kakashi yelled.

Naruto grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head, "That's because that's the image I want you to see."

Kakashi walked calmly away from the tree and approached Naruto, then hit him over the head, resulting only in Naruto falling to the ground with a hard as well as loud _thump_. "Naruto, you can go take a break and watch as Sakura does her jutsu." Kakashi's right hand now motioned towards Sakura, who wasn't really paying all that much attention. "Come here Sakura!" Kakashi said loudly enough for her to hear.

She slowly eased her way up from her quiet sitting position where she had been pretty much content. Sakura came forward from her resting place, which was surprisingly not next to Sasuke. She had decided that Sasuke just wasn't interested in her, and it was probably all for the better too. Now she could focus on becoming a strong ninja and carry out her family's legacy.

Sakura stood next to Kakashi and winked at him. "This'll be a cinch" she said as she lifted her hands in front of her and formed one of the infamous jutsu signs. Her hands moved expertly through the air, chakra flowing steadily from them. She closed her eyes and concentrated on what she wanted Kakashi to see. Her mind drew the academy. Team seven was soon placed there, even though they were still on the training grounds. This was, after all an illusion jutsu. Soon the scene was moving to the inside of the academy where she was beating Naruto up. Kakashi laughed and Naruto's mouth fell open.

"Thank you Sakura, that will be enough," Kakashi laughed out.

Sakura sent Naruto a funny look and then she retreated to her original resting spot, beneath the shade of a tree. Kakashi walked over to Naruto and started to talk with him, only to have Naruto argue with him in retaliation. Sakura smiled as she seated herself against the tree's trunk and let her back fall against it. She closed her eyes and listened to the loud ranting of her teammate. Her other teammate, Sasuke couldn't have cared less what was going on as long as it didn't involve him. He was being typical, old Sasuke. The quiet one, the party pooper, Naruto's rival/best friend, Sakura's _old_ crush, the avenger, the epitome of arrogance; they were all Sasuke.

"What's the big deal Sensei! All I was doing was having a bit of fun!"

Kakashi then chose to shoot his opinion into the one-sided argument "That's the problem Naruto, all you do is joke around! Try to take training seriously once in a while and I may not be forced to kick you off the team."

At that Sakura's eyes shot open and she instantly ran towards her teacher and team mate. "No Sensei, please reconsider! We need him in our team; he truly is a powerful addition to it! Without him-"

Kakashi cut Sakura off "No Sakura, I wasn't going to replace him or whatever your mind had drawn its own conclusion to, but he needs to learn some discipline."

Sakura waved her hands in the air in protest. "Yes Sensei, it's true that Naruto isn't one of the most serious of ninjas, but that's just his character. I know that he really takes this training to heart, even if he doesn't show it." Then she added in a sort of annoyed tone "Trust me, I'm stuck with him."

Naruto shot Sakura a funny look and Kakashi smiled at her, "Well, it seems that you two are getting along a lot better than last time, so I'm very happy to see that this team is making progress with it's abilities to rely on one another. Although, Sasuke isn't really too keen on putting his two senses in, I've gathered."

Sakura's smile fell to a small frown as she eyed Sasuke from the corner of her view. He was sitting quietly under a tree a little ways away from Sakura's. His eyes were closed and he seemed to be lost in thought about something.

She waved him off and replied "Well that's Sasuke for ya! Always one to keep to himself, but don't worry Sensei! Whenever Sasuke feels that he needs to talk with his team, he does. And we always include him in group discussions, too! His silence is like a quiet confirmation that our choice was a good one." Sakura once again smiled, happy with how she was coping with the situation at hand.

Kakashi nodded and then walked over to Sasuke, with a happy Naruto and somber Sakura in tow. Kakashi's feet came to rest just in front of Sasuke and he opened his eyes, not even bothering to look up to his Sensei. Kakashi bent down and smiled at Sasuke.

"Is that how you feel, Sasuke? You're silence is an approval to your team's decisions?"

Sasuke nodded, as if in a daze and closed his eyes again. Kakashi then stood once again and walked back over to a tree to lean on. "Very well, you may all take a break and go eat some lunch. I'll be back in two hours, so don't keep me waiting." He walked off, leaving team seven to their own devices.

The first thought that registered in everyone's mind was that they had at least five hours before training would once again commence. Kakashi never ceased to amaze his young team with his ability to lose track of time, or rather as he put it 'getting lost on the road of life.'

Naruto instantly ran away from the training grounds to find food, inviting Sakura to go with him and she accepted his kind offer for the second time that week. She was beginning to finally see that Naruto wasn't such a bad guy after all, and though he was a trouble maker, he was still a good friend. The first time Sakura had actually taken the time to sit down with Naruto and talk was a week ago when rumour of the possible Chuunin exams had surfaced. Sakura had been growing worried about the situation because their sensei had been threatening to enter them in the exam. Kakashi obviously believed that his team was capable of dealing with the many hardships that were to come with the exams, and Sakura was never one to doubt her sensei's opinion, but she was so inexperienced! She knew that if she entered the exams, she would only slow Sasuke and Naruto down. She didn't want to be an extra weight, and she just happened to bump into Naruto when the nervous bubble growing in her stomach was about to burst last week.

Naruto had been very helpful in diminishing her worries to a few simple concerns. They had both eaten some ramen at Ichiraku's and talked over their chances of passing the exams. At first, Sakura was quite doubtful about their chances of passing, but after a few bowls of ramen and some light-hearted banter with Naruto, she had changed her mind. Maybe the task wasn't impossible, maybe if they just played their cards right……..

And thus, as Naruto helped bring back Sakura's cheer, she came to realize that he wasn't truly the demon boy she had feared for so many years. As they conversed serious and not so serious matters, and as Sakura watched Naruto's eyes sparkle with wonderful emotion and, even as he laughed his obnoxious yet heart-felt laugh, Sakura decided he was a good person. No, those terms were too plain, Naruto was so much more than that. He wasn't just a good person or just a teammate, he was a friend.

Sakura shook her head and smiled to herself as she and Naruto walked towards town. Her eyes landed on him as his pace increased the smallest of a fraction. How could she have been so blind? How could she have possibly not seen _who_ Naruto was? Perhaps she wasn't giving people enough credit, or maybe it was that she just judged too quickly. No matter, she didn't have to think of this right now.

Sakura sighed and turned to Naruto, "You know, Naruto, I've been...-Naruto?"

Quite a few feet ahead of Sakura, Naruto was running.

Sakura started to take off after him, pushing her feet off the ground with much force. "Naruto! What the heck are you doing!"

Naruto didn't stop running, but rather picked up his pace as he called over his shoulder "I just told you, I gotta go pee!"

Sakura turned up her nose and stopped running.

'Ugh, Naruto can be so gross at times. Does he have to yell out "I gotta go pee!" Jeez, he could have just said "going to the washroom!" He really is a boy.' There seemed no point in following Naruto to the washroom, as he sometimes took forever to 'finish his business', so she thought it best to just make her way to Ichiraku's and meet him there instead.

Sakura smiled as she lifted her gaze to the cerulean sky hanging above her. 'I never would've let this thought cross my mind two weeks ago, but I think I may be getting stronger. Who knows, maybe Naruto has something to do with it…..'

She leveled her gaze once more with the sight of the town. Despite knowing that hard times were coming and that even harder decisions lay ahead for all of Team seven, Sakura just couldn't keep a smile from her face.

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"C'mon, Naruto! You can do it!"

She couldn't believe that she had been drug into this.

"Chug-a-lug, chug-a-lug, chug-a-lug! Go Sakura!"

Wasn't anybody in the world going to preserve their sanity?

"Faster, faster!"

Her estimated guess was a no.

"I'm putting 20 bucks on Naruto."

But she couldn't back out now.

"You're on! I'm rooting for Sakura!"

Her pride was at stake here…….Wait….What pride?

"Hey guys! Their both on their last bowl!"

As Naruto was just about to take his last ramen noodle into his mouth and win the ramen eating contest going on between him and Sakura, a hand shot out and slapped him hard on the back. A hand that belonged to their sensei no doubt, but Naruto didn't need to know that. Naruto watched in horror as the noodle slipped off of his chopsticks and began falling towards the ground. The scene that was displaying itself before him made him feel like he had been stuck in some lame slow-motion flick and he wasn't going to reach his girlfriend in time before the monster consumed her. In this case, his girlfriend was that last ramen noodle and the monster was the ground. And, although Naruto bloody well knew that he couldn't defy gravity, he also knew that the laws of physics had never stopped him before. He couldn't lose to anyone at this game, he had spent years perfecting his speedy eating habits for crying out loud!

No, he wouldn't lose. Not now, not ever.

Naruto quickly dove off of the stool he sat on and opened his mouth wide. He had to catch that noodle and eat it before Sakura finished her own bowl of ramen. So quickly he had dove off of that stool, and so quickly Sakura had finished eating. Sadly, well for Naruto anyways, Sakura was heaved onto the shoulders of two male villagers and was being paraded around the streets of Konoha. Why was this sad for Naruto? Well, as Sakura had been hoisted onto the shoulders of the villagers, Naruto had fallen head first, with an open mouth straight into the dirt.

As Naruto watched Sakura's heightened form being carried away and out of view, he lifted himself up and smiled to himself sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, at least I didn't loose to chicken hair. Losing to Sasuke would be SO humiliating!"

"You're on."

"What the-" Naruto quickly turned around to find Sasuke sitting at one of Ichiraku's stools……….

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Ten minutes later…..

"C'mon Naruto!"

"Go Sasuke!"

"WTF, people? Is that Uchiha sitting on that stool?"

"You know it! Thirty bucks on Naruto!"

"Me, too! The guy's gotta feel the pressure now, I mean he already lost to Haruno."

And as quickly as the contest had started, it ended with a winner and a loser. The winner raised himself from his stool and smirked at the loser, who, for the second time that night, lost to _his_ own game at the hands, or better put mouths, of his teammates. A sad night it was for Naruto indeed.

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Sometime later…….

Naruto trudged through the streets of Konoha with his head hung low and a bottom lip so full of pout that it threatened to consume the entirety of  
Japan with its size.

Naruto was questioning the day's events and how he could have possibly…..

'I can't believe that I lost to chicken hair of all people! Okay, so Sakura wasn't such a big deal 'cause if that hand hadn't pushed me I SO would've won! Believe it! But losing to that jerk! It's like I'm losing my touch or something…..'

Naruto's eyes went wide and if one did not know the blond ninja well, then one would have felt compelled to report the insane amount of horrifying screams that exited said blond boy's mouth.

Naruto sank slowly to the ground, confusion written all over his face.

"I can't believe it…….I must be suffering from what Kakashi told me I had……."

And if one really didn't know said boy, then one would surely question what he screamed next.

"I'VE GOT STDS!"

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End of Chapter 1. 

A/N So that's it for now I guess. I hope, whoever has read this chapter that you've enjoyed it and will follow this story for it's entirety or at least until I stop caring (j/k .)

Maybe next chapter I'll elaborate on those stds……Just kidding! Anywho, if your fingers aren't glued together or if you're not preoccupied with trying to lick your elbow, reach for the button. Reach for it! It's calling to you! It can read your thoughts! It _knows_ where you live…….'Nother joke, me so bad. (Review please)

'Til next time,

Rinjii Harayumi


	2. We're on the right track

Hello again and welcome to the second chapter of my story! I'm in a great mood today as I was just informed that I may be getting a kitty! Yay! Actually, I already have a cat, but he really belongs to my sister, so if my parents are in complete agreement about getting another animal said animal will be mine. I can't wait!

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, I want to know why it's so hard to up-date stories. This morning I tried to install this chapter, but the stupid (actually really smart) computer wouldn't let me do it. The nerve! If anyone can answer my question, please do so. It would be much appreciated.

Now onto the story!

Enjoy,

Rinjii Harayumi

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**There's No Place like Home**

**Chapter 2**

**We're on the right track**

"There will be no excuses today," Kakashi told his young team firmly. "Today we will train for five hours straight."

Naruto was about to protest his Sensei's command, but as his mouth opened just the slightest of a fraction, his eyes caught sight of the solely visible eye belonging to his teacher. Naruto slowly brought his lips to a close and stared in awe at the man before him who held so much more life experience. It was evident, even through just one look, that Kakashi was serious today. It was very clear to Naruto, prankster of Konoha, that this day he would be training the hardest he had ever trained before.

Albeit no words were spoken to him directly, Naruto found himself nodding his head in what seemed like understanding at his Sensei's strict look.

Kakashi's eye seemed to comprehend the small action and thus he continued to communicate to his team with words. He had been afraid that Naruto would've been the hardest to persuade to train without laughing seeing as his joyful ways usually got more than the occasional sound of delight out of him, but Kakashi was no longer concerned on this matter. His concern had already moved on to more pressing matters; preparing his team for the Chuunin exams.

"Today I will push you all harder than you've ever been pushed before. You will continue to train whether you're bleeding or not, you will not make a sound unless it is to tell one of your teammates vital information and you will not leave these training grounds until the fifth hour has come to pass. Have I made myself clear?"

Each member of Team seven lowered their head slowly and holding no more haste than their previous motion raised their heads in what appeared to be unison.

Kakashi gazed down at his team, the team he thought ready to enter the Chuunin exams. While looking at their serious expressions and seeing that there was no trace of confusion fixed upon them he could feel nothing but pride. Pride for his team, pride for his ninjas. Pride for Team seven.

Although Kakashi stood tall above his students seated upon the hard ground, he knew they were ready for this. They couldn't have been more prepared.

"Alright, let us begin."

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Sasuke tried to keep his mannerisms, such as the moving of his hands or the shifting of his feet to a minimum. He couldn't afford to give his position away; his teammates were counting on him to do his part if their plan was going to be executed properly.

Sitting beneath the leaves of several bushes, Sasuke awaited the sight of his Sensei. All he needed to do was plan his timing right and make a rustling noise as soon as one of Kakashi's feet came into view, which would give Naruto more than enough time to race back to Sakura so they could prepare the traps. All he needed to do was watch what lay beyond the bush, but concentration was rather hard to come by within the Uchiha's mind at the moment as it was preoccupied with the itch on his back.

Reaching behind him with extreme caution, his right hand moved in-between his shoulder blades and began rubbing at the persistent itch.

'Dammit, what is this? If it doesn't let up soon I'm going to have to move a lot more than I'd like to.'

Unbeknownst to him, Kakashi was a mere two feet away from his position. The Jounin had been walking around the training grounds for quite some time, searching for his students. Today out of all days he had felt compelled to bring out a bell, mostly to remind Team seven that teamwork would always be necessary no matter what missions they may be assigned to in the future. Only on solo missions was it a necessity to think like three people at once, but their Sensei knew that it would be a long time before any of his students got assigned to one of those missions. As Kakashi would say; they still had a lot to learn on and off of the battlefield.

Thus Kakashi had brought only one bell with him on this lovely Friday morning. Only one bell was needed because he knew in result of being chosen for many missions over the years that when fighting an enemy, the opposition didn't tend to walk around with more than one confidential article. Only foolish ninjas would try to deliver more than one secret article at once. Those were the types of ninjas that usually lost their lives in combat and, consequently, lost the article as well.

Shaking his head lightly, the Jounin paused in his slow step and took a look around. He had told his team that if he wanted to he would activate his sharingan, but that was only to scare them. Kakashi definitely wanted to see what kind of plan his young ninjas would come up with through the eyes, or rather eye of a normal Jounin.

'Besides, it's not like I'll need to use my handy-dandy sharingan,' thought Kakashi as sighed to himself. 'I could just whack Naruto with my Icha-Icha Paradise should anything go wrong.'

A quick rustle in the bushes to his right brought him out of his stupor, however. So, somebody was in there?

As Kakashi began walking towards the bushes, a foot lashed out at him. Kakashi jumped a few meters away, not all that surprised at being attacked but still his eye widened at the sight of who emerged from the forest floor.

Sasuke scrambled out from beneath the bush, twigs getting stuck to his clothing and leaves caught in his hair as he did so, and he raised his head just in time to catch his Sensei's shocked look. The look only lasted a second and was soon replaced by a matching smirk and snicker. Sasuke's eyes narrowed at his teacher. Why was he suddenly acting all smug?

None the less, Sasuke advanced on his 'enemy' and threw the first punch. Kakashi dodged it easily, whilst grabbing Sasuke's arm and throwing him backwards. As the Uchiha landed safely on his feet, another snicker made itself known. This only proved to fuel the younger of the two's frustration.

'Whatever he's laughing at, I'm getting sick of it.'

Instead of advancing on Kakashi yet again, Sasuke thought of another approach. He quickly threw three kunai at his Sensei, who caught one and threw it back at him. The kunai hit Sasuke in the elbow, or what appeared to be Sasuke. A puff of smoke proved that it had been a substitution jutsu. Sasuke swiftly re-appeared behind his teacher, who turned around just in time to see him spit out a fireball. Kakashi jumped to the side, Sasuke appearing behind him once again. Sasuke was about to kick at him when Kakashi disappeared.

A powerful blow was dealt to Sasuke's backside. The Uchiha went flying toward a tree, but instead of crashing into it he speedily placed his hands on it'trunk and pushed off of it, pretty much flying at Kakashi. The elder smirked and Sasuke saw coming at him. If he could just hit a leg to slow him down…..

Sasuke was about to strike when he heard a rustle in the bushes to his left. Using a substitution jutsu, he let himself get punched in the chest.

A flash of orange left the scene and headed back towards Sakura, where the traps set up by them were ready.

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Naruto dashed through the trees, content with how their plan was unfolding. Pretty soon Sasuke would lure their Sensei to where he and Sakura had built many traps. Their plan was not all that complicated. Using four trees, they had built a cross-section where kunai and shruiken would be fired each and everyway. Kakashi would probably use a substitution jutsu they had figured, so they themselves would be acting as decoys. It was risky, but if the traps managed to catch Kakashi off guard then it was likely one of them would be able to snatch the bell and end the 'mission'.

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Huffing and puffing, Team seven sat upon the forest ground once more, Kakashi standing above them. However, smiles and smirks were their expressions this time. Sakura sat next to Naruto who held the bell firmly in his grasp.

They had done it. It hadn't been easy, but they had done it all the same. Quite frankly, none of them could believe it. Well, none of them expect for Naruto who had yelled "Believe it!" that is.

The team members smiled at each other as in their own way this was their silent congratulations to one another. They were all bleeding, they all had bruises on their bodies somewhere and they were all exhausted. After five hours of fighting with their Sensei in serious combat, they had retrieved the bell. So many jutsus had been used, so many traps had been triggered and so many kunai had been thrown. They had used any and all means necessary to get it. The after-effects of the fight were not over, however…..

"Oi, Sasuke!"

Sasuke looked to his left where Naruto sat smiling at him. No, it was more like a smirk, almost the same smirk that Kakashi had regarded him with earlier that day.

"You know you're pink, eh? I think you've found your colour. Suits him, don't you agree Sakura?"

Sasuke raised his fist, but the attempt to throw it at Naruto was diminished as Sakura popped up in front of him.

"Oh my….." Sakura placed a hand over her mouth to try and contain her laughter, however with both Naruto and Kakashi laughing, it was hard not to. "S-Sasuke…..I think you have….. Poison ivy……" And then she couldn't help herself as she joined both her teacher and teammate who were either holding their stomach or rolling on the ground.

Naruto finally sat up, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes. He pointed at Sasuke "Heh, you've got a body rash! A stinking body rash! The Uchiha is now a rash!"

Sasuke fist 'accidentally' came in contact with Narurto's right eye, who then slapped the pink boy on the back.

"Oh Naruto! You're not supposed to hit someone when they have poison ivy! It only makes the itch worse!" Sakura half cried and half laughed.

Kakashi had taken to leaning against a tree once again as he watched the display before him. Sasuke trying to kill Naruto, Sakura holding him back but only worsening the itch when he did so which caused Naruto to laugh even harder than before, Sakura trying to look worried but even she was getting a kick out of being a witness to seeing a pink Sasuke and then Sasuke scratching at his body furiously.

"Eh Sasuke, I'm over here now!"

"Shut it Naruto, this is _not_ funny."

Kakashi couldn't help but smile at the team he was so proud of.

"Come on Sasuke, why the long face?"

"I _will_ kill you, dobe."

It was true that they could all be a little silly sometimes, but they were headed for the right track.

"Not like that you won't. I bet you wouldn't even be able to catch a frog and eat it."

"Tch, as if I would be stupid enough to do that."

"Come on you two, let's get Sasuke some ointment."

Who knows, it was probably beyond even Kakashi's knowledge just how important Team seven really was to his students.

"Sounds good, as long as Naruto doesn't pick it out."

"And why's that Pinky?"

"Don't call me that."

Maybe even someday when they have all gone their separate ways they will be able to look back on the days as Team seven and remember…..

"I will if I want to, Pinky"

"That's it, you're going down."

….that the ties of their friendship were what really got them through the hardest of times, yet they would be facing so many of those because….

"Bring it, Chicken hair."

"You got it, Ramen kid."

"Hey, I like that one."

"You guys are impossible."

…..This was only the beginning.

End of chapter 2.

A/N Yeah, so what did you guys think? Too serious, not serious enough? Tell me your thoughts. I particularly like the ending to this one, even though it has nothing to do with Naruto's illness. Anyway, give me some feed back, 'cause I'm not too sure what I should do with this fic. No matter what becomes of this story though, I really want to try and keep the characters themselves as much as I can. I think that'll be my goal. Raises fist in air I will keep Sasuke cranky!

Sasuke: …..Oh my……

'Til next time,

Rinjii Harayumi


	3. Trust can be hard to come by

Hello everyone! I'm back with the third chapter for those who are reading this story. Again, I encourage those who are reading this to review and send me your thoughts as to how this story is progressing. Is it too slow, too fast (which I doubt), or do you just not like it at all. Reviews are what I look forward to, as it is feed-back as to whether or not this fic is any good. Please, let me know if this story is any good.

Now onto the story once more!

Enjoy,

Rinjii Harayumi

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**  
There's No Place like Home**

**Chapter 3**

**Trust can be hard to come by**

Sakura sighed as she checked herself over one last time in her mirror. She had been up since dawn which had come to pass, what, four hours ago?

'Feels like so much longer than that' she thought, exiting her room and closing the door behind her. She rounded a sharp corner and proceeded downstairs where she could already smell her mother making breakfast. She grinned at the familiar scent of steamed rice, miso soup and the hint of rolled omelet mixed in. She could have been mistaken, but she could've sworn that she also smelt some grilled fish, too. The wonderful aroma was quickly inhaled and exhaled, leaving a now hungry ninja in its wake.

"Morning Mom," Sakura greeted as she stepped into the kitchen. Mrs. Haruno turned around from her position at the sink and smiled at her only daughter.

"Good morning, Sakura. Did you sleep well?" Sakura nodded at her mother's question. 'Leave it to Mom to worry about the specifics.'

"So what have you got planned for today, dear?" Her mother asked her as she brought out a plate and cup from the cupboard. She sat clumps of rice on the plate first, quickly followed by a piece of rolled omelet and a nicely sized chunk of fish. She then poured milk into the cup and handed the articles of food to her daughter, along with a pair of chopsticks.

Sakura took the food and drink gratefully and sat at their kitchen table, picking up a piece of the omelet and playing with it. "Actually, I'm going to be helping Naruto today. He's been asking me all week to help him improve on his illusion jutsu, so I thought today would be the perfect day seeing as it's our day off." Sakura finally decided to place the piece of omelet in her mouth, hastily swallowing. "Plus, I didn't have anything else planned, so he's probably saved me from a pretty boring day."

Mrs. Haruno laughed. "Well that's good news, because nobody should feel bored on their day off," she dramatized herself by placing a hand over her mouth in shock and gasping out "Especially not a ninja! Oh dear, imagine if you had been reduced to helping your mother in the garden!"

"Mom!" Sakura laughed, "You know I love gardening with you, it's just that being a ninja takes up most of my time." As if on cue, Sakura glanced at the clock.

"Ack!"

Mrs. Haruno turned around once again from her position at the sink to look at her daughter. "What is it?" She inquired, quite taken by the amusing gestures Sakura was performing as a means, she guessed, to speed up her eating.

Sakura tried to explain why she was suddenly rushing through breakfast, but it was no use. All she could say between mouthfuls was extremely muffled or got trailed off as she stuffed some more food into her mouth. Her mother just shrugged and went back to doing the dishes in the sink.

As she Sakura just finished the last piece of her grilled fish, she slammed her chopsticks down on the table and made a dash for the door. Not moving from the sink, Mrs. Haruno smiled as she heard her daughter yell a "Bye Mom!" and "Breaky was great!" before she ran outside. Quietly humming to herself, Sakura's mother continued her dish-washing.

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Naruto was sitting, for perhaps the first time in his life, quietly on the bridge's railing where Team seven usually met each morning. He was both anxious and excited as he awaited the arrival of Sakura who had happily agreed to help him practice his illusion jutsu for a good part of the day.

'Sakura sure has changed' Naruto thought, bringing his right hand up to cover his mouth as he yawned. 'I thought she was afraid of me like everyone else from the academy, but I guess I was wrong.' He swung his legs around the wooden railing so that they were now dangling over the river flowing just beneath him. 'Well, I know that Sakura's totally got the hots for me and all, but I don't like her that way anymore. I mean, yeah she's cute and all, but I kinda like how we're just friends now. It feels nice, having a real friend for once.'

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled, running toward him and frantically waving her hand high above her head.

Naruto turned his head in Sakura's direction and smiled at her.

Sakura ran up to where Naruto was sitting, making quick sentences of apology and explanation. Well, that's what it sounded like to Naruto anyway. She was talking way too fast for him to understand half of what she was saying.

"Yeah, so like I said before I'm real sorry about being late!" She gasped out and took a massive intake of air, looking at Naruto for his reaction.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at her and could feel his lips trying to both smile and frown. In the end, Naruto's expression looked somewhat constipated. Sakura laughed at his facade.

"S'okay...I think" he finally responded.

"Good, then let's go" Sakura chirped happily and grabbed his hand, pulling him towards the training grounds.

Naruto could do nothing as he watched the back of her form lead him in their run but think about how happy he had felt when she had arrived at the bridge.

'Yeah, sure is nice having a friend.'

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Sasuke awoke with a start, the sweat that had accumulated on his brow during his sleep now falling onto his bed sheets. Currently sitting up straight and quite rigidly on his bed, he thought about what he had just experienced. Why had he had that dream again? He had been having it so often lately…..

Sasuke sighed and shook his head. It was just a bad dream, nothing more. Yet it kept coming back, it was so persistent! He just didn't understand why it kept coming back. Surely his mind could supply him with another dream, so why didn't it? He had too many questions and absolutely no resources for answers.

It seemed that today was going to be another one of those days for the Uchiha.

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"Looks like you've gotten the hang of it, Naruto. How about we take a break?" Sakura called over to the blond ninja.

Naruto peeked an eye open at the sound of her voice. Sakura did have a logical reason for telling him to give it a rest. They had been practicing the jutsu for what, three hours? No, four at the least. Well, whatever the time they had spent training it really paid off for Naruto as he now knew exactly how to conduct the illusion jutsu.

"Um, sounds good Sakura. I think I may be getting a headgrain from all this."

"That's a migraine and I bet you are. I don't think I've seen you concentrate this much since you first learnt how to channel your chakra to your feet and walk up trees" She stated with a pleasant smile.

Naruto grinned sheepishly and rubbed at the back of his neck, closing his eyes. "Yeah well you know, if I'm gonna be Hokage someday I better learn a few new tricks."

Sakura laughed and patted her friend on the back somewhat forcefully. "And a great Hokage you'll make I'm sure, but first you'll need to come and visit your sick teammate with me."

Naruto's eyes shot open at the reminder of Sasuke. "Oh that's right! I completely forgot about him being a rash!"

Sakura quickly covered Naruto's mouth and looked around. "Naruto! You shouldn't say that out loud! Just imagine if one of Sasuke's fans had heard you say that, you'd be dead meat!"

Naruto fidgeted beneath Sakura's hand and she took it as a sign to let him go. "Wait a second, aren't you one of his fans?" Naruto inquired curiously.

Sakura scoffed "As if! I used to like him, but I don't anymore. Besides, I've got bigger fish to fry."

This caught her companion's attention right away. "Oh? What kind of fish would you be frying and can I eat them?"

Sakura whacked her forehead. "Not real fish Mr. Hokage, ambitions. Like becoming a strong ninja and carrying out my family's legacy. You know, that sort of stuff."

Naruto nodded in comprehension. "I get it. So eating fish will help you become a stronger ninja! Maybe I should get some fish-flavoured ramen or something..."

"Naruto! Are you serious! You honestly believe fish can do that!"

"Why not? If milk can make your bones stronger, I'm pretty sure fish can make you a stronger ninja."

Sakura considered what Naruto had just said. 'Sadly, the guy's got a point. But fish don't do that! Oh, I might as well let him believe it. It doesn't look like he's going to reconsider.'

"Thanks Sakura, I won't forget this!" Naruto announced cheerfully as they began walking to the Uchiha manor.

"No problem." 'Great.'

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RING!

Sasuke rolled over in his bed, trying to ignore the sound of the doorbell.

RING!

He placed a pillow over his head, hoping that it would help to deafen the annoying noise.

RING! RING! RING! RING! RING! RING! RING! RING! RING! RING! RING! RING! RING! RING! RING! RING! RING! RING! RING! RING!

It was no use. He was going to have to get up and answer the door.

Getting up from his bed, Sasuke began walking downstairs so that he could answer the door and tell whoever was ringing the doorbell to go away. As he neared the door, the ringing became more persistent and he could hear voices on the other side. Voices that seemed to belong to his teammates…..

"Stop it Naruto! Who knows, you could be driving him nuts in there! He may not even be home….."

"Exactly! I know for a fact that if he's home that ringing his doorbell is gonna make him so pissed!"

"Geez, you really are a guy."

"Yeah, did you think I was a girl?"

An audible POOF resounded through the air.

"Ew Naruto! Nobody wants to see your sexy jutsu! Make it go away!"

"Aw, but the look on your face was priceless!"

Sasuke decided that he had had enough of listening to his teammates' rather peculiar conversation and opened the door. Sakura and Naruto's heads whipped to where the door had just opened a crack. A barely perceptible "Come in" was sounded from the other side. The visitors nodded at each other before entering the large home.

Sasuke was standing a little ways behind the door as he opened it a bit more to let his teammates come in. Once they had both entered completely, he closed and locked it quickly. Meanwhile Sakura had made her way to the couch where she sat down and made herself comfortable whereas Naruto was already raiding Sasuke's fridge. Sasuke began walking toward the couch where he could see Sakura getting the ointment ready to place on his rash, the Poison ivy. Naruto then re-entered the room with a plate full of food that appeared to be left-overs and a cup of ramen in his hands, placing it on a table in front of him. He chose to sit on the floor.

Sakura took hold of Sasuke's left arm, the one closest to her and began to apply the ointment. "It's looking a lot better today, Sasuke."

He gave a quiet "Hn" as a means of responding to her attempt at beginning a conversation. Sakura sighed heavily. Sasuke really was not a talker; definitely nothing could be held in comparison between the Uchiha's talking manners and Naruto's ever-so loud ones.

"So what do you do all day, Monsieur Rash? It's must get pretty boring being coped up here" Naruto began, whilst plopping a small piece of sushi in his mouth.

Sasuke shrugged in response, a slow smirk settling across his face. "I get by. It's not like I need to paint the Hokage's rock-face for amusement."

Naruto coughed, hitting his chest. He had nearly chocked on that small piece of sushi, but it wasn't like he was going to tell Sasuke that anytime soon. "Hey! I did a good job on them! Iruka-sensei may have been upset that I did that, but I know he thought they looked great. Didn't they, Sakura?"

Sakura did not look up from where she was applying the ointment on Sasuke's arm, but a smile formed on her lips. "Well, I wouldn't say they looked amazing, but definitely different."

Naruto stood up, puffing out his chest like he had just won a wrestling match and raised a finger which was pointed directly at none other than Sasuke. "In your face! Told you Pinky, they looked good." And as abruptly as he had stood, Naruto dropped to the ground and once again began to stuff his face with food from the Uchiha's refrigerator.

Sakura shook her head at both Naruto and Sasuke. "Hey Sasuke, how'd you get that?" She paused to raise herself up and sit on the other side of Sasuke so she could put some ointment on his right arm. Sasuke gave her a quizzical look as she adjusted to her new position on the couch. "On your left arm, there's a mark there. Looks kinda like teeth marks….." she trailed off in thought.

Naruto scrambled to his feet, rushing over to see the mark. Indeed it resembled the markings of teeth. He laughed, pointing once more to the Uchiha "He probably got attacked by an alley cat or something. Never thought you'd let an animal get the better of you, Pinky."

Sasuke smirked. "Like the time you thought that bullfrog was going to eat you when we were waiting at the bridge?" Sakura began to giggle at the funny memory. That had happened only two weeks ago, too. Naruto really could be stupid at times.

"Oh yeah, did you see the size of that thing! It was looking straight at me, too! I'm telling you guys, that was no bullfrog. It was probably what gave me the STDs!"

Sasuke turned up his nose at that last bit, as Sakura was also having a hard time to keep her composure.

"Ew."

"Naruto! That's disgusting! Did you even _know_ what a STD is?" Sakura burst out.

Naruto nodded, sitting down once more with his food. "Of course I do. A STD is a sickness that slows down your abilities to eat ramen quickly, also known as 'slow table dining.' Kakashi-sensei told me that I was suffering from it and the only way to get rid of it was to sing at the festival that's coming up. I'm so happy that he told me, I was really starting to think that I may not be the fastest ramen eater in Konoha."

Naruto brought his gaze to the faces of Sakura and Sasuke, which looked like they had both been frozen in time and remodeled by Picasso himself. In all, it wasn't a pretty picture.

"I think someone's been pulling your leg, dobe."

Sakura nodded in agreement. "Definitely. Naruto, that's not what a STD is. Kakashi-sensei just made that up so that you would make a fool out of yourself at the festival."

Naruto's shoulders began to shake, tears forming in his blue eyes. "But why would he do that? I don't get it….."

Sasuke just shrugged. "Probably because you're the only one who would fall for something like that."

Naruto wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, looking up at his teammates with just one question on his mind at that moment.

Both Sasuke and Sakura feared what he may say next……

"So guys……..What's a STD?"

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"I'LL KILL HIM!"

"Naruto, slow down!"

"HE'S GOING TO PAY FOR THIS!"

"Sasuke! Do something!"

"….."

"Argh! Naruto, get back here! It can't be that bad!"

"OH, IT IS! BELIEVE IT!"

"So how many people did you tell, dobe? How many people think you have a STD?"

This caused Naruto to stop dead in his tracks, turning around to face his teammates. He began counting his fingers, saying the numbers out loud. Well, math was never Naruto's thing.

When he reached fifty and kept going, however, this got some funny faces from Sakura and Sasuke.

"You told over fifty people!"

"Shh, I'm still counting."

"Your stupidity never ceases to amaze me, idiot."

"Back at you, chicken hair. Now let me count."

"Forget it, Naruto. Let's just go get something to eat. It's getting late."

"Alright, now that's what I'm talking about! You always come up with the best ideas, Sakura!"

"Yeah, yeah. Thank me later when I end up paying for your meal. Sasuke, you coming?"

"Whatever."

"Okay then. Team seven to Ichiraku's!"

And so Team seven began walking to Ichiraku's, intent on eating a dinner consisting of ramen.

Sasuke glanced at Naruto and Sakura who were off to his left, chatting away with each other. He knew that he shouldn't have felt alone at that moment, seeing as he was in the company of his team and all, yet he couldn't help but feel just that. Despite their attempts to bring some cheer to his rather gloomy home, he had as of yet to feel it. With all the reoccurring dreams he had been having lately and now this mark on his arm that he didn't even know existed until today, his thoughts had seemed to be thrown recklessly together and then left unfinished. He didn't know what to make of the dreams or the mark, but he knew that he didn't want to tell either of his teammates about it. These problems were his own, and he knew that if he brought them up that his teammates would stop at nothing to solve them. How annoying that would be and yet, at the same time the thought felt so compelling. Maybe if he had just told his teammates about his troubled thoughts and dreams, perhaps if he had been more open to them and more trusting they would have been able to help him.

As Sasuke took one last look at the people who walked beside him before he returned his gaze to the ground, he felt that they could be trusted, but he would not give in to such a notion. Teammates or not, he would not trust them fully. When on missions he would dive head-first into the enemy if necessary, knowing full-well that they had his back, but this type of trust was different. This was trust that was built off the battlefield.

If he had only spoken up or let a word slip that could give away the cause of his turmoil, maybe he would have come to realize that they had their own set of problems, too.

But that he would leave for another day.

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End of chapter 3

A/N Hey guys! Not much to say this time, hope you liked the chapter. I think I may spend a few chapters examining Sasuke a little closer than usual, because I've already written about the relationship held between Sakura and Naruto, but now I need to move on to the relationships between Sasuke and Sakura/Sasuke and Naruto (friendship wise).

'Til next time,

Rinjii Harayumi


	4. Sorry about this

Hello to any and everyone who are following this story! I'm sorry to say that my next up-date will only take place after two weeks have come to pass. Unfortunately, although I'm ecstatic about this, my family and I are going away to P.E.I for the next couple of weeks and I don't know if I'll have access to a computer while I'm there. If by some lucky chance there is one where we're staying, then I'm definitely going to see if I can use it to up-date. If not, I'll just have to up-date when I return home. I'll be writing parts of the story while we're on our Atlantic adventure, hopefully I'll get one or two chapters written, as we're going to be driving around for a good portion of the first day, something like 6 or 8 hours.

Anyway, sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused anyone.

'Til next time,

Rinjii Harayumi


	5. We're in this together

Hey guys, what's up? I'm back from the maritimes now, they were really awesome! I saw a blue lobster, which I really thought was cool and swam with a butt load of jellyfish. The ocean was actually warm, which surprised me. One of my friends told me that it would be freezing. Needless to say, I had a blast and now I'm back, focusing on this story more than ever. Oh, and I'm born on the same day as Sasuke! YEAH!

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Rinjii Harayumi

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**There's No Place like Home**

**Chapter 4**

**We're in this together**

"_M…M-Mother?"_

_Eight year old Sasuke cautiously approached his bloodied mother, Mikoto, noting how her eyes were quite dull and that his father was no where to be seen. _

_Sasuke's footsteps were kept light as he ran over to his fatally wounded mother, her limbs sprawled out all over the wooden floor in the kitchen. _

"_Sasuke…I-" Mikoto coughed, blood exiting from her mouth and spilling onto the ground that she lay on. As soon as Sasuke was by her side, she shakily took her hand in his, stroking it as she had done so many times before when Sasuke would cry out in his sleep when he was an infant. _

_Sasuke's vision of his mother was becoming rapidly unclear as tears formed in his eyes, nearly obscuring his sight altogether. _

"_Mother, what happened? Why?" Sasuke brought Mikoto's hand up to his face where he rested it on his cheek, wet from the clear liquid falling from his eyes. _

"_Sasuke, be strong" _

_Sasuke shook his head in confusion, not comprehending what his mother was trying to tell him. "Mother, I don't understand"_

_Yet all Mikoto could do was give her son a final smile as her hand went limp in his, her eyes losing all life and shine, the movement of her chest stopping altogether. _

_Sasuke felt Mikoto's hand go limp as he clutched onto it, burying his tear-struck face in her right palm. _

Sasuke bit forcefully into his arm to subconsciously suppress a scream, deepening the teeth markings on his left arm that were already present.

"_Mother! Wake up! Don't leave me!" Sasuke cried into his deceased mother's right palm, feeling as if he five years old all over again, wanting nothing more than a hug from his wonderful mother. _

"_Silly brother, she's never going to wake up."_

_Sasuke did not look up from where he stood; he knew all too well the voice that had entered the room belonged to his older brother, Itachi. _

"_Itachi, why did this happen? Why is – why is Mother dead?" _

_The elder of the two scoffed in the doorway, waving a hand in the air as he nonchalantly responded to his brother's question. "Because I killed her, little brother. I also killed our late father." Sasuke's eyes widened at the thought of both his parents being dead. That left only him……and Itachi…… _

_Itachi began to step toward where his lifeless mother lay. "Pathetic fools, they never stood a chance."_

_Sasuke was then violently pulled back from Mikoto's corpse and held up against the nearest wall by his throat, his head rolling downwards in the process. Sasuke struggled against his brother's grip but was not strong enough to free himself. Itachi was so much more experienced and he was so……_

"_We are unique, you and I,"_

………_weak._

"_You have always strived to be at my level, so I shall spare your life."_

_He had always been weak in comparison to his brother._

"_Yes, live off of the hatred you hold for me now, little brother,"_

_If only he had been stronger……would his parents still be alive?_

"_and someday, when we meet again,"_

_Was it his fault? Was this all his fault!_

"_We will fight to the death."_

_It was…………_

"_Hey chicken hair! Why the long face?"_

…………_Naruto?_

_Sasuke raised his head to find that Naruto and Sakura were approaching him. Wait? What was this? He was twelve years old again?_

_The youngest of the surviving Uchiha looked around at his surroundings, realizing that he was standing in the streets of Konoha. A wave of relief washed over him then, his expression changing from confused to somewhat content. He could just make out the smile that had settled on Sakura's face in the distance as she started to run over to him, whilst waving and calling out his name as a familiar greeting. Shortly after, Naruto also began running over to where Sasuke stood, yelling out well-known phrases to him such as "Let's go get a bite at Ichiraku's; your treat!" and "Let's spar later, I'll beat you again!" _

_All time seemed to slow however as Sakura froze on the spot, a few feet in front of Sasuke. Weeping softly, Sakura dropped to her knees in the middle of the street. _

_Sasuke's expression changed once again to that of confusion as he watched his female teammate cry. For the strangest of reasons he almost felt responsible for her tears, but he had no explanation for this sudden feel of guilt. In a means to comfort her, no louder than a whisper he breathed out her name. This was something he had done many times before to get her to stay quiet, but as he spoke her name gently this time, she only cried harder. _

_Naruto, no longer cheerful, squatted down at her side, placing one arm around her shaking shoulders and letting his other hand rest on her shoulder closest to him. _

_Sasuke looked on in disbelief at what was happening before him. Reaching out a hand, he took a step toward his seemingly troubled teammates. But as soon as his foot came in contact with the dirt on the road, Naruto raised his head to show that both an angry and hurt look had settled there. Sasuke, taken aback by his male teammate's hostility, brought his foot back to where it had been resting a few seconds ago. _

_What was going on here? _

_If Sasuke wasn't already confused enough with Naruto's expression of anger and emotional pain, he began to notice that Sakura was fading beneath Naruto's touch. Taking a frightened step back, he can only watch as Konoha disappears in a void of nothingness. Complete blackness was what Konoha was rapidly fading into along with Sakura. Yet Naruto was still visible to him. Apparently only their forms were present within the vast darkness. _

_Naruto raised himself from his squatted position, thrusting a finger at Sasuke in the process. Angrily, he yelled:_

"_That's right, you coward! Take a step back! Back down! That's what you're good at, isn't it? Just running off!"_

_Sasuke shook his head, confused as to why Naruto was so angry with him. He took a deep breath. "Naruto, what happened to Sakura?"_

_Naruto sneered at him, yelling out "We were a team! Didn't that mean anything to you?"_

_Perplexed as to what Naruto is going on about, Sasuke sighed and lowered his gaze to the ground, or what he thought was the ground. "We still are a team. What's your problem, dobe?"_

_The Uchiha lifted his head once more, surprised to discover that Naruto had also disappeared. Turning around to see if Naruto was behind him, Sasuke was shocked when what seemed like clips from his life came flying out from the darkness at him, quickly surrounding him. He watched them in shock, these clips of his life. So absorbed in watching them he was that he did not realize someone was standing behind him._

_Sakura had materialized behind him, making no sound expect for the three words she whispered to him through the darkness._

"_I forgive you."_

_Sasuke whirled around on the spot, coming face to face with his pink-haired teammate. There she was, smiling at him through her tears, fading at such fast rate that it defied any logical thought. All he could do was stare with wide eyes as she faded, and feel as the bewildering guilt he carried for her resurfaced. The guilt he carried………_

Sasuke shot up in his bed, his breathing laboured. Beads of sweat rolled from his forehead onto the dark coloured sheets that were currently wrapped around his body. After a few moments, he took a deep breath and composed himself.

'Damn, that dream again.'

The Uchiha rose from the position on his bed and walked, albeit slowly to the window where the curtains were pulled across to prevent the sun from infiltrating his room. He gently opened them, and winced when the bright sun's rays came into view. It was going to be yet another sunny day in Konoha, it seemed. A day to run around outside and play with friends, a time to do whatever food shopping or house cleaning was necessary, or simply an occasion to sit and think about a most reoccurring dream. A haunting dream at that.

Sasuke walked over to his desk where a framed picture of Team 7 sat. He had collected many other pictures over time as well, like one of Kakashi's face when he had dropped his precious book in the mud (Naruto had gotten a hold of the camera that day), one of Sakura punching Naruto square in the jaw, one of which Sasuke favoured, a picture of him and Naruto glaring at each other (Sakura took that one) and one of him and Sakura sitting by the river together. He held up the picture of him and Sakura which was protected by a silver frame, running the fingers of his right hand across its top. In the picture, Sasuke had his trademark smirk in place and Sakura was smiling like a goofball. It was a really nice picture, but as Sasuke continued to look at it only one thought crossed his mind;

'She……forgives me?'

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'Ah, another beautiful day. I'll just tell mom I'm going out and spend the day outside. I think Kakahsi said training was starting early tomorrow morning, so might as well enjoy the day.'

Sakura looked herself over one last time in her mirror before she exited her room for the day. Running down the strairs, she called out;

"Mom! I'm going out!"

Sakura's mother appeared from the kitchen, holding a pot in one hand and frying pan in the other. "Okay my little ninja. Be home for supper."

Sakura ran over to her mom, gave her a kiss, and reminded her that she wasn't little anymore and that she was a proud genin. Mrs. Haruno simply laughed at her daughter's small retort and locked the door as Sakura left.

Sakura, now outside her home began walking to where she had promised to meet Ino so that they could catch up on what was happening in their lives. Ever since Sakura had told Ino that she was over Sasuke, they had agreed to drop their childish rivalry and just be friends again. A truce had been said and now much catching up was needed.

As Sakura approached the spot where Ino was supposed to be waiting for her, she found that Ino was quite literally absent from the scenery. Sleeping in, no doubt. Ino was the type of person who wanted to get as much beauty sleep as humanly possible, so Sakura wasn't all that surprised. Turning around, she was surprised however when Naruto appeared in front of her and grabbed her hand, pulling her behind him as he began dashing in the direction of the Uchiha manor.

"Naruto! What are you doing!" She had yelled at him more than once during their mad dash to Sasuke's residence. Naruto seemed too excited about whatever was happening to actually make any sense when he answered her, as all she could make out were the words "Grab, friend, chain and six."

Sakura gathered that in Naruto language that meant "Grab a hold of six friends and make a chain."

Sakura inwardly laughed. 'Wow, Sasuke's right. I really have been hanging around Naruto too much. I can even make out what he means when he's talking in gibberish for goodness sake!'

Looking straight ahead of her, the Uchiha manor was no more than two hundred yards away. With Naruto's speed, they were there in a heart beat. As soon as his foot touched the front step, Naruto began pounding the doorbell so fast and so hard Sakura was sure the poor thing was going to explode at any moment. Luckily for the doorbell, Sasuke answered the door. He swung the door open, apparently ready to yell at whoever it was that was bothering him so early in the morning when a hand grabbed his and pulled him out of his home. The movement had been so fast that his front door slammed shut at the gust of wind that was produced from the motion. When Sasuke saw that it was Sakura pulling him and Naruto was leading them, he shouted over the wind to ask for their destination.

Sakura couldn't really turn around to tell Sasuke, so she had to shout as well. "I have no clue where we're going. I just know that we have to form a chain of six friends by grabbing a hold of their hands. So when you see someone we know, grab them."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at this, but said nothing more of it. 'The dobe can be really weird at times.'

After about fifteen minutes of running around Konoha, Shikamaru had been grabbed by Sasuke, who then grabbed Choji, who then grabbed Hinata to finish off the chain of six friends. All six genin had been suspicious as to why they were forming a chain and about their destination, believing it to be something amazing, so when Naruto finally arrived there, they were a little more than confused. They had even been given an extra dose of confusion when Naruto practically fainted on the spot, Sakura holding him up to support his suddenly weak state. When he had regained his strength, which took a whole two seconds to do, Naruto ran to the middle stool and plopped himself down, ordering every flavour of ramen known to man, and even some that one might think didn't exist. At last, one of the six people present broke the silence…..

"Ichiraku's……..? What the heck are we doing here?"

Naruto, who was stuffing his face already, in response to the question, pointed to a sign on his right. The sign read:

_Don't miss out on Ichiraku's special one day event! Eat your fill of ramen with any flavour you like!_

Shikamaru just shrugged, plopped himself down on a stool, announced his infamous "What a drag" and ordered. Choji then sat next to Shikamaru, ordering as well. Hinata, blushing like crazy, took a seat on the other side of Shikamaru and to Naruto's left, ordering albeit quietly. Sakura let out a healthy laugh, sitting down on Naruto's right and gave her order. Closely followed by Sakura was Sasuke who shook his head, smirk in place, sat down next to Sakura and ordered. After all had received their ramen, they began to chow down.

Sasuke had decided to try the cranberry, pair and apple flavoured ramen. Placing one noodle in his mouth, he swallowed and grimaced slightly. Announcing "That's gross", Naruto reached over and grabbed the bowl, eating the ramen Sasuke had thought disgusting. Sasuke looked at the spot where his ramen had once been, then gave Naruto an incredible look. Naruto gave a shrug of the shoulders, saying "Nu nidnt yam te."

Sakura piped up then. "Translation: You didn't want it."

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Sometime later………

Naruto rose from his seated position on one of Ichiraku's stools, stretching his arms towards the sky and then placing them behind his neck, resting his head on them. The question had come up as to who would be paying off their massive ramen debt not moments ago.

"Yeah, so who's gonna pay it?"

All (except for Naruto) pointed at Naruto. Naruto had ended up pointing to Sasuke. When the Uchiha raised an eyebrow at Naruto's finger, all the blond could manage to come up with was "Well, aren't you, like, I dunno know, rich or something?" A smack to the head was Naruto's answer.

Naruto sighed and dug into his pockets for his yen, whilst Hinata, Shikamaru and Choji thanked him for the ramen and left. Naruto had wondered why Hinata had turned bright red when she had thanked him. Pulling out a rather small amount of yen out of his pocket, Naruto handed it over to the man situated behind Ichiraku's countertop.

"Hey, what are you trying to pull, punk? This ain't even a quarter of the bill!"

Naruto sighed again and turned around to face his teammates for help. Sakura just showed her empty pockets and Sasuke gave a small laugh. Naruto stuck out his tongue, then turned back to the man working at Ichiraku's to ask if he could pay off his debt some other way.

The man eyed Naruto, noting that he was a ninja. "Well," he began, "I guess you could help with the preparations for this year's carnival. I need some help putting up my stand over near the grounds we reserved for this year."

Naruto nodded sadly in agreement to the offer. "Fine, I'll do it." He turned once more to his teammates. "At least you guys'll help me."

Naruto's face fell even more when he saw that Sakura and Sasuke were actually getting ready to leave. He tried again, this time his voice sounding a tad bit urgent. "'Cause we're in this together, right?" Naruto's smiled sheepishly at his friends, rubbing the back of his head.

Sakura laughed at Naruto's predicament, walking off. "Yeah right, have fun my future Hokage."

The blond ninja's left hand began to reach out on its own accord. "But-"

"See you later, dobe," Sasuke announced, walking off after Sakura.

Naruto, somewhat angry with his teammates for deserting him yelled out after their retreating forms "So much for being a team!" The sound of laughter reached his ears, making him kick at the dirt, but after doing so he ended up laughing himself.

'Maybe I can get some more ramen while I'm working…….Mmm, ramen.'

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Sakura walked slowly down the street leading away from Ichiraku's, intentions set on going to see If Ino was awake yet.

'She better be, it's almost three in the afternoon!'

As Sakura continued her way to their meeting place, a park a couple of minutes away from where she currently was, she heard her someone calling out to her. It was Sasuke.

"Hey, wait up."

Sakura turned around and waited for Sasuke to catch, which didn't take very long. Once he did, she started to walk again.

Sakura smiled at the Uchiha who asked "You doing anything today?"

She thought about meeting Ino at the park, but dismissed the thought all together. She could always meet up with her at a later date. "Nothing much, just walking around." Sasuke nodded. As they walked on, silence fell between the two teammates. Sakura felt, for the oddest of reasons uncomfortable as they walked with the ensuing silence. So she started up a conversation about the types of ramen she had tried, liked and disliked. Sasuke eventually joined in her seemingly one-sided conversation, giving his opinion on how most of the ramen tasted to him. Sakura wasn't surprised to hear that he disliked most of the flavours he had tried, but she was shocked to find out that he had liked the ice cream flavoured ramen. She had thought it was one of the most disgusting flavours.

After quite a long conversation about ramen, they ended up at a spot favoured by Team 7; the bridge where they met every almost morning before training, the bridge they had so fondly named Team 7's bridge. Of course, the structure didn't belong to their team legally, but they spent so much time there that it should have.

Sakura let her legs loop through the lower part of the railing, sitting down whilst her hands held onto the higher part of the railing. Sasuke stood facing the other direction, elbows set atop the higher part of the railing, back pressed against it as well. As enjoyable as his teammate's company was, he was still increasingly troubled by his reoccurring dream. Why did it always end with Sakura saying she forgave him? Why did Naruto always accuse him of running off and deserting their team? He had already found out how the mysterious teeth markings had come to exist on his left arm one night when he woke up with his arm in his mouth, his teeth sinking deep into his skin. Apparently this was a method to keep from screaming out in the night, and Sasuke guessed that it connected with his 'case' as he was continuously having rather frightening dreams. Well, truth be told he was pretty much having nightmares. Maybe he would be able to get some answers if he made some 'hypothetical' points to Sakura. She was, after all very bright.

"Have you ever had a nightmare?"

Sakura jolted out of her reverie. She had been so content with gazing at the water that she had completely forgotten about Sasuke's presence. She shook her head lightly. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. What did you say?"

Sasuke repeated himself, not bothering to look over his shoulder to make eye contact. "Have you ever had a nightmare?"

Sakura felt somewhat shocked at the question. Was it not, well, personal? Since when did Sasuke ask personal questions?

"Yeah, tons. Why do you ask?"

Sasuke sighed. That was what he was afraid she would ask, the 'why?' or 'have you been having nightmares?' Luckily for Sasuke, Sakura just kept on talking.

"Well, when I was about five years old, my mom told me what it meant to be dead. I was very frightened of death then, and had quite a few nightmares where I died, my parents died, basically my family died." Sakura cringed, swinging her legs back and forth over the river flowing beneath the bridge. "I even had a nightmare once when I was trampled by a massive foot." She let out a small laugh at the thought of it. "Funny how I was scared of feet for a week after that. But nightmares are just our imaginations working over time, nothing more and nothing less. I was silly to think mine had anything to do with real life."

Sasuke nodded, even though Sakura could not see the movement of his head. "But what if you keep having the same nightmare every night? What then?"

Sakura thought about it for a while before answering. "Well, I'm not sure. Maybe it could be like a premonition."

Sasuke's brows knitted together slightly. "Premonition…?"

Sakura gave another small laugh, "Yeah, a premonition. You know, like a dream that gives you a vague idea of what is to come in the future so that you can prevent something bad from happening."

Another nod of the head, "Hn. But what if the circumstances were different? What if the person having the premonition was also experiencing moments from his past?"

Sakura took another moment to think about what Sasuke had asked her. "I'm not too sure. Most of the time when someone dreams about their past it's so that they can learn to accept what has happened to them and move on with their life. But to dream of both the past and the future……I don't know. That would be one messed up person."

Sasuke sighed once more. Maybe Sakura was right. Maybe he was dreaming about his past because he had as of yet to truly accept that the events had taken place. He knew that his family was dead, but he didn't necessarily want to believe the truth. Sometimes it was just easier to believe in the lie; the truth hurts no matter how you look at it and the truth hurt more for Sasuke than one could imagine.

"So Sasuke, are you having nightmares? Are you dreaming about killer bunny rabbits, or possibly a massive foot stomping all over you?" Sakura asked, looking around to face Sasuke.

Sasuke turned to her and gave her a smirk. "You wish."

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A/N So that's another chapter! I have as of yet to even begin the fifth one, but I'll be working on that sometime in the near future. As for life, it's been treating me very nicely. Not only did I find out that I'm born on the same day as Sasuke! Yeah, July 23 people! WOOT! But I also started a new story. I'll be posting it on fictionpress for anyone who is interested. (Same pen name) It's going to be about a bunch of people living out on the streets, trying to survive. I've already written little bits of it, but I don't think it will be up for a while. I still have a lot of work to do involving it.

Thanks for all who are reading this story! A special thanks goes out to Nakarame-Scarlet who has reviewed every chapter so far! Thanks so much, the feed back is much appreciated!

As always, please review!

'Til next time,

Rinjii Harayumi


	6. You are not so weak

Allo mon amigos! Another chapter is ready and awaiting for your reading skills to run through it.

I notice that I haven't put up a disclamer for a while, so here goes nothing;

Disclamer: Okay, I haven't written one of these in a while as I just stated and since I don't fancy the thought of big, burly men showing up at my door to take me away as my sister throws her slippers at them but actually hits me instead; I don't own Naruto...not even his baby toe. How sad...

Alright! Now that that's over and done with, on with the chapter!

Enjoy,

Rinjii Harayumi

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**There's No Place like Home**

**Chapter 5**

**You are not so weak**

She sat there, and for the first time since she could remember, actually feared what may lay ahead of her in the future. Certainly she had conversed a while ago with Naruto about the speculation of the Chuunin exams and he had cheered her up about the matter, there was no denying that, but now that she knew hardships were really going to take place, now that she knew there was no way she could prevent the pain she knew without a doubt was to fall before her and her team because of all the tales she had heard about the legendary exams…

She was afraid.

The announcement of the Chuunin exams had officially taken place this morning as their sensei had handed them their very own registration forms. Sakura had been shaking when she had first come into contact with the tiny slip, bearing her name and ninja registration number on it. She knew what the Chuunin exams were as she had heard many of the elder ninjas talking about it not three days ago. She had been content that day, cheerfully walking the dirt streets of Konoha when she had entered Ino's family's flower shop. Ino and her had picked up, becoming the friends that they once were. The rivalry between them had diminished and with it they buried old quarrels. The only difference this time was that Sakura wasn't going to look up to Ino as much anymore. She had become her own individual in the time they had been rivals and no longer needed the guidance she had so desperately needed back then. Also, they had vowed never to let another boy turn them against each other. They both agreed that they had been naïve and should have never severed their friendship; life would have been easier if they hadn't.

So, as another sunny day was beginning to liven up the village hidden in the leaves, Sakura made a bee-line for Ino's home, situated a top the Yamanaka's flower shop. Literally bouncing with happiness, Sakura had entered the familiar shop bursting with the scent of fresh flowers, intentions set on waking Ino up so they could do some more catching up, when she heard she saw three men, actually ninjas whispering in the corner of the room she stood in. Deciding to use her amazing ninja skills and eavesdrop, Sakura did the first thing that came to mind. She began to pretend to be looking at flowers. Slowly, she made her way down the rows and rows of exotic and common plants, stopping at one very near the spot the three elder nin were sharing something private with one another. When she could actually discern what they were saying, she felt her mood change almost immediately. Her breath caught in her throat seconds later.

They were talking about the Chuunin exams!

Strange as it was for anyone to be conversing such a matter out in the open, and even though they were using their 'indoor' voices, they were older nin and had probably taken the exams before. So, it couldn't be such a bad idea to hear what they thought about the exams…

Oh, but it had scared something else out of her. She had heard them tell each other about their near death experiences, the wounds they had received and the pain they had undergone. The tests they had failed, the challenges they couldn't overcome and the obstacles that had been their ruin. It was all so frightening.

Naturally, Sakura wouldn't have kept listening and her inner self would have paraded on about how those men failed the exams because they hadn't paid close enough attention to their enemies or how Team 7 was much better than any other team, but Sakura was petrified. She was beginning to question her loyalty to her team, her devotion to becoming a strong ninja, herself in every light possible. She was truly fearing that she would be the fall of her team in the exams should they enter, that she would simply prove to be an extra weight for both Naruto and Sasuke. Maybe it would be better for their team if she just didn't enter the exams at all and had her teammates find another ninja to complete their three-man squad.

Now she sat down on the forest floor of the training grounds, back leaning against an aged chestnut tree, clutching the paper in her shaking hands that could be the fall of her team or the very death or her. Naruto and Sasuke were sparring in front of where she sat, both boys eager to enter the Chuunin exams. But did they know? Did they even know there was such a high possibility of death? Did they know that it was likely if they entered, they may not leave the exams alive? She doubted that either of her teammates had given it much thought, seeing as how pumped they were to enter.

She shook her head slightly at her own worries and a small, sad smile came to rest upon her lips. It was true, no matter what they said that she would only end up slowing their team down if she entered the Chuunin exams. She would have to tell both Sasuke and Naruto that she couldn't do it, that she was too scared, that they were better off picking another person to complete their team. Well, it was now or never.

"Naruto, Sasuke, could you guys call it quits for a sec?"

Both of her male teammates' heads whipped around to where her voice had come from. Well, at least they wanted to know what she had to say. Reluctantly, the boys walked over to her and each took a seat in front of her. Naruto was the first to speak.

"What's up, Sakura?"

She knew she was being selfish and childish, but she had to tell them her fears. If she didn't, she would have been lying to her team, and lying to your team was not an honorable action in the way of the ninja. More than anything, Sakura wanted to be true to her teammates, the people she had come to so fondly call her friends. She needed to tell them, they would understand. Convincing herself this was best, she began.

"Um, you guys know that the exams are coming up and all," Sasuke gave a short nod of the head and Naruto just smiled.

Naruto cut Sakura off. "I know! I'm so psyched! It's gonna be awesome and we're gonna win no questions asked!" He pumped his left arm enthusiastically into the air above his head. "We've been training as a team for a while now, so there's no way we could fail!"

Sakura was fidgeting with her fingers in her lap, her small smile receding into barely anything at all. She cleared her throat before she spoke again. A lump had been building up in it. "Yeah, there's no doubt that you and Sasuke are going to do great in the exams, but I don't think I'll be able to go through with it. I-"

She raised her head to look at her teammates, Naruto's eyes wide and Sasuke's expression a bit darker than usual. Naruto began to protest "But Sakura, that's not true, you're a great nin-"

"-I just can't do it. I'm going to sign the registration paper, so you and Sasuke should start asking around to see who would like to be your new team's third member. I'm sorry, but this is my decision."

Sasuke scoffed at her. "You're giving up already? I thought I knew you better than that, Sakura."

Sakura looked back down at her hands in her lap. She knew it wasn't going to be easy to get her team to listen to reason, especially if it meant losing a member. Naruto nodded his head deeply, taking in Sasuke's words. "He's right, Sakura. You're not the kind of person to give up so easily. Besides, even if you didn't go through with the exams, Sasuke and I could never ask another person to take your place. You're a big part of this team, you know."

Sakura couldn't take it anymore. She snapped. "I know I'm a part of this team! I'm afraid, dammit! I don't want to die!"

Sasuke's eyes widened and Naruto's eyes softened. While Sasuke had no idea that Sakura had even been pondering the thought of death, Naruto understood where his pink-haired friend was coming from. He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder as she began to weep.

"Sakura, it's alright to be scared. I'm scared, too and so is Sasuke."

Sakura shook her head defiantly at Naruto's words. "I know you're lying to me Naruto! You're not afraid of anything and Sasuke fears nothing in his wake! I could never be like you two, always strong and courageous…"

Sasuke didn't know whether he should laugh or not. Sakura actually thought he wasn't frightened of anything? Boy, was she wrong. He feared the day he would once again come face to face with his elder brother, Itachi, and even though he did not let on much, the thought of death did irk him. He feared his memories of the Uchiha massacre, of dying without completing his life goals. He feared much more than nothing. In reality, there was a great number of things the Uchiha was scared of, but most of all it was his mind where all truth was buried. His mind was one of his biggest opponents that he feared he would never be able to face down.

"You're wrong," Sasuke began, standing up and looking down at Sakura through lowered bangs. "I'm afraid of much more than you may think, but the difference between you and I is that I won't let my fears stop me. I have set goals for myself and I have every intention on seeing them through. Even though there are many possibilities that I may succumb to death before I reach those goals, I'm still trying. You have to keep trying, too. You are not as weak as you think you are, Sakura."

Sakura looked up to Sasuke. Those had most likely been the kindest and most encouraging words he had, well, ever said to anyone. She saw that both her teammates were standing up in front of her, each holding out a hand for her to grasp.

All time seemed to stop as she thought about what her dark-haired teammate had just said. It may not have been true that he feared a great many things, but everyone was afraid of something. That much she was certain of. Naruto had even confided in her once that his greatest fear was of the demon he played a host to. Should it ever break free, he didn't know if he would die or lose himself all together. Sasuke had also just told her he had fears, but he wouldn't let them keep him from what needed to be done. Maybe, with their help she could come to know of how they pressed on each day and evaded their fears. Maybe they could show her how. They were her teammates after all, and she trusted them both with her life, so why could she not trust them to guide her?

With Naruto smiling down at her and Sasuke's smirking, she felt almost obliged to take each of their hands. In doing so, maybe life could carry on with more ease.

So, with a goofy grin and a nod of her head, Sakura slipped her hands into the hands of her teammates. She knew that one day death would come to her, but she didn't need to worry about that matter until that fateful day came to pass. Until that day she could relish in the companionship of her teammates and let their love continue to wash over her and guide her. For now she would simply live her life as best she could and bathe in the warm sensation that their friendship brought her.

The feeling of being home.

A/N Yup, so that's another chapter. Sorry it took a while for the up-date, but life happens to us all I guess and it just can't be avoided.

As always, thanks for reading and please review. I would really appreciate some more feed back.

Rinjii Harayumi


	7. Our very own strategy

**Hello everyone!**

I'm terribly sorry for the time it took me to up-date this chapter. I've had a lot on my plate as of late and haven't had much time to write or type anything.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get the next chapter up soon.

Enjoy,

Rinjii Harayumi **  
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**There's No Place like Home**

**Chapter 6**

**Our very own strategy**

Sakura walked with her head held high, an air of confidence surrounding her in the misty morning air. A thin layer of fog coated her vision of the dirt road leading to the training grounds on this fine day. She could hear birds chirping happily away off to her left and dogs barking a ways off to her right. The village was just waking up and would be bustling about in no time. It wasn't even seven o'clock yet. Sakura's mother had awoken her to inform her daughter that Naruto had come by and had requested that Sakura meet up with both him and Sasuke at the training grounds. Needless to say, the pink-haired ninja had been a little confused, wondering why Naruto had come by so early in the morning, but she wasn't worried. Sasuke and Naruto most likely wanted to pack in as much training as possible before the Chuunin exams began, a grand total of three days from now. This day was meant to be spent prepping for the exams, making sure that all equipment necessary for the test was purchased and in decent shape. Tomorrow would be the day of the carnival, a final day to relax and ease all pent-up tension from their minds for the night. The third day would be used to recuperate and make last minute changes to fighting techniques or jutsus.

Heaving a sigh, Sakura noted as the infamous bridge where Team seven usually met up came into view. So many good memories had been built there, so many tears had been cried there and yet no matter what else took place there, that bridge would forever remain as a place of happiness for the members of Team seven.

As her footsteps lightly walked over the bridge and brought her closer to the training grounds, the pink-haired kunoichi was quite surprised at the sounds that reached her ears. She was expecting to hear curses from Naruto, smug remarks from Sasuke, the noise of two kunai clashing together in a spar, but those sounds were apparently non-existent at the moment at the training grounds for they did not reach her ears. What she heard instead shocked her.

Silence.

For perhaps the first time in her life, as she approached the training grounds the air was still and there was no noise other than the fading soundings of the dogs and birds from earlier on in her walk. She advanced cautiously, wondering if Naruto was going to jump out at her unexpectantly from behind a tree.

After a few cautious moments, she was once again shocked to find that there was no sign of either Naruto's or Sasuke's presences. Either they were waiting for her deeper in the training grounds or they were hiding their chakra. Both were possibilities, but she wanted to believe in the first one more than the second. If her teammates were in fact concealing their chakra, that meant that they would probably be getting ready for a surprise attack, though Sakura doubted that Sasuke would go along with it all the way. Perhaps this was their way of reminding her to stay on edge for the exams; but then again it could be that she was reading a little too much into the silence, which she was inevitably, but was very unaware of this. So, the female ninja continued onward and deeper into the forest that lay on the sectioning of the training grounds of Konoha, ready for anything that should befall her…

…Or so she thought. After approximately ten minutes of walking through the forest with a wary mind and a kunai in her hand, Sakura came to stop a few yards short of where both her teammates sat. They apparently hadn't noticed that she had arrived as they continued their, what appeared to be civilized conversation. Surprise may have not been the best word to describe Sakura's emotion at that moment, but it was a key component to the look on her face.

'Naruto and Sasuke are…talking…like normal people!'

Sakura needed a second to compose herself before she approached the seated ninja. She had been expecting a surprise attack, a few kunai thrown at her to make sure she was at all times paying attention to her surroundings, even Naruto dangling upside down from a tree, but not finding the two most likely people in all of Konoha to be sitting down together and appearing to be enjoying each other's company with good old conversation. How could she have possibly missed such a change in both of the boy's attitudes regarding one another? Was it possible that they were being reasonable for once?

Sakura's footsteps grew heavier as she was no longer trying to be stealthy. There was no need to be if her teammates were right in front of her, after all. Naruto and Sasuke were sitting across from each other, their sides facing in the direction Sakura had come from. She lifted a hand in the air and smiled. She spoke, "Miracles never cease to amaze me. You two are actually having a proper conversation, aren't you?"

Naruto quickly turned his still-seated body to greet Sakura, but also managed to smack Sasuke across the face whilst he did so. He cleared his throat before announcing "No way! Why would a talented ninja like me be talking with such an unworthy, wanna be ninja. The guy caught poison ivy for crying out loud! I don't think he could even-"

Sadly Naruto did not have the chance to finish his sentence as he was thrown into a tree not three feet away from where he had been sitting only two seconds ago. Naruto's back collided with the bark of the tree, his body then falling to the ground and his face drowning in a puddle of water at the tree's base. Naruto lifted his head as water sputtered from his mouth, all the while glaring at Sasuke. The Uchiha simply smirked back at him with an air of superiority. Naruto crawled back to where he had been sitting before and grumbled something under his breath. Sakura could have sworn she had heard him say "Mr. Rash."

Sakura sighed as she took a seat beside both males. And they seemed to have been having such a nice talk, too. Alas, not all good things were meant to last, she concluded.

Where was the good in the world?

Naruto, without saying anything else abruptly stood up and proceeded to stand in front of Sasuke, then sharply turned his body away from the other boy sp that his butt was mere inches from Sasuke's face. Then he farted.

Oh, there it was.

After much fighting and cussing about Naruto's disgusting ways, the three shinobi took a seat on the forest floor together once more. Sakura couldn't help but laugh inwardly at how the all-out fighting event had taken place. After Naruto's rather disgusting moment, Sasuke had lounged forward at Naruto, who had hid behind Sakura, who was trying to hide behind Sasuke from Naruto. A first kunai was thrown by Sakura as a means to get Naruto away from her as soon as she realized he was behind her, then Naruto threw a kunai at Sasuke and finally Sasuke threw a kunai out of frustration at a random tree. Thus the cursing began, soon followed by the fighting. Sakura had ended up defending herself from Sasuke who was really after Naruto but needed to get past Sakura in order to be able to land a hit as Naruto was using her as his own personal body guard. Naruto had been launching attacks at Sasuke from behind Sakura and Sakura had been trying to grab Naruto, who had always managed to re-appear behind her. Eventually, after exchanging quick glances with Sasuke, Sakura rolled to the side, allowing him to hurl a handful of tiny shuriken at a very open Naruto.

As the madness ensued, Sakura performed her replication jutsu and effectively landed a hit on both Naruto's and Sasuke's backs. Then, it became a free-for-all. It had ended pretty funnily, with Naruto being beaten by jumping straight into the thick branch of a tree as he was trying to keep a close eye on Sakura, Sasuke tripping over a large root as he was looking back to see what had happened to Naruto and Sakura laughing so hard she was holding her sides. Very funny, indeed.

So there the three fighters sat, all equally exhausted from their big brawl and yet at the same time as equally content with one another. All felt at ease, simply being in the company of each other was pleasant. Their relationship as a team had grown to such a level already, and still so much was ahead of them. Even with that knowledge resting in the back of their minds, nothing had the power to break through the pure feel of harmony that had washed over them and stayed.

Naruto, who had been holding a small grin with his eyes closed suddenly opened them and clapped his hands together in front of his chest. Sasuke did not open his eyes nor did the grin he maintained on his lips fade, but Sakura's eyes opened at the little but sharp sound Naruto had produced with his hands. She looked at him with curiosity written all over her face, wondering why he had broken the peaceful silence.

The blond boy, using his hands to pull his body around to face Sakura, let a sheepish smile fall onto his face as he parted his lips. "Hey Sakura, are you still worried about the Chuunin exams?"

Sakura brought a finger to her mouth and held it there. That was a very good question…and after a short moment of contemplation, she knew the answer. There was no denying that she wasn't as frightened as she was before about the up-coming event, but she still couldn't pretend that she wasn't a little scared. They was, after all possibility of death. Who wouldn't be afraid of that, other than Naruto and Sasuke, and perhaps all the other ninjas in the world?

"Not as much now, I think. I mean, I can't help but be a bit nervous, you know?" Sakura brought her finger away from her chin and slowly brought her chin to rest in the palm of her left hand instead, with her elbow balanced on one of her crossed legs.

Naruto nodded at her words. "Yeah, I've gotta say that I'm kinda nervous about what we'll have to do, but I'm just itching for a good fight! With Sasuke being such a pathetic opponent and all-" Sasuke growled at that, which made Naruto raise up his hands in a somewhat apologetic way. "Ahem, anyways, I ran into…wait no, Konohamaru actually ran into me yesterday and told me about something he and his friends do sometimes to win that ninja tag game thingy. They think up funny faces, like this-" Naruto stuck his tongue out and pulled down on the skin underneath his right eye "-so that they can, umm, do that communicating thing and know what the other person is gonna do or something like that."

Sasuke grunted and smacked Naruto up-side the head, making the blond fall over. "What the dobe is trying to say is that when Konohamaru plays ninja tag, he and his, err, friends make a plan so that they are almost guaranteed a win when they start the game. Sort of like a code, I guess, but nobody else knows it except for them. They use, as Naruto demonstrated, funny faces to communicate in a way so that none of the other players can understand what they are saying. So even if they were planning an ambush or a surprise attack, their opponent wouldn't know until the last second."

Sakura smiled. "That's pretty smart…wait a sec! Are you guys suggesting that we-"

Naruto suddenly sprang to life and popped up from where he had been knocked down. "Yup! We're gonna be pulling funny faces to communicate with each other during the exams!"

Sasuke smacked Naruto a second time, but he didn't fall over. Instead Naruto rubbed at the spot where Sasuke had hit him on the arm, quite forcefully he noted, but maintained his good cheer. "I mean, Sasuke said he doesn't know if his face will stretch enough to pull a funny face-" Sasuke's fist was hovering about two inches over Naruto's head "-so instead of doing the same thing as Konohamaru, we're gonna make hand signs! That way, no matter what, we'll always be able to communicate! Pretty cool idea, huh?"

Sakura waited until she saw Sasuke lower his fist before answering. "Yeah, for once, our future Hokage has made some sort of sense. So then, what kind of hand signs should we have?"

And so, the three comrades began coming up with ideas, devising their very own strategy for the Chuunin exams. After much arguing, debating, and confusion on a certain blond boy's part, Team 7 had many hand signs, each signifying a different meaning.

Naruto, who had somehow gotten himself into a handstand position rolled out of it and came back into a crossed leg sitting position. "So, let me get this straight. When I lift my hand in the air, it means I need help, when I lift my fist in the air, it means I'm okay and don't need any help, when I lift my hand in the air and hold my index finger up, it means we need to run away, when I raise both my index fingers, it means someone's there, when I put both my ring fingers up, it means I need some extra equipment, when I lift my pinky, it means I'm hurt, when I lift two pinkies, it means I have an idea, and when I raise one of my ring fingers, it means that I can feel that I'm running low on chakra. I think I got them all."

Sakura was smiling and nodding, happy with Naruto for remembering all of the hand signs they had just created, but something felt off. Within a minute, she knew what it was. "But what happens if we get separated and don't know if Naruto is the real Naruto or if Sasuke's the real Sasuke? What hand sign should we do then?"

Sasuke stood up, as did Naruto and Sakura with him. The Uchiha was silent for a second, then a smirk appeared on his face. "I've got it. Let's hold up our right hand in the air like this." Sasuke raised his right hand into the air above him. "We'll keep our thumb, index finger and middle finger up and leave our ring finger and pinky down." Sasuke brought his hand down to show both Naruto and Sakura how the hand sign should look.

Naruto gave a curt nod before asking "Sure, but what's it mean?"

Sasuke looked at both Naruto and Sakura, and held out his hand in front of him whilst it was still holding the hand sign. Naruto instantly thrust his hand next to Sasuke's, his hand also forming the sign. Slowly, Sakura also formed the sign and put her hand in as well.

Again Sasuke looked to his teammates, then looked down at their all three of theirs hands. Finally, he answered Naruto's question,

"It means 'friend.'"

It had been a few hours since Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke had left the training grounds together. They had promised each other that they would all be practicing their hand signs so that they would remember them for the Chuunin exams and therefore would be able to take full advantage of them.

For the first time since Sakura could recall, the trio didn't head straight to Ichiraku's after their 'teamwork' session. Instead, they were walking the streets of Konoha together, stopping in shops to look at items that intrigued them, making comments on how they would change certain aspects of the village if they were Hokage, and talking about the carnival that was to take place tomorrow. They had decided ten minutes earlier that it would be really cool to go as a team, which is what they were definitely going to be doing, as Naruto had closed the discussion with a "Hell yeah!"

Right now, the three teammates were on the topic about what they would change about the village if they were Hokage. Naruto had been very enthusiastic about this topic since it had been brought up. He had been more than delighted to voice his opinions about how he would change the village, and it was apparent that he had been thinking about it for sometime, as he had many ideas to share.

"Well," Sasuke began, "I don't know. It's not like I'd ever want to be Hokage or anything, I'll leave that to the dobe, but I would want to see more scrolls donated to the academy so students could learn more techniques at a much faster rate than we did."

Naruto nodded, and took a pen and note pad from out of one of his back pockets, apparently jotting down what Sasuke had said. "So, Sakura, what would you change about the village?" Naruto asked.

Sakura looked around herself, not sure what to say. There were so many things that could be improved, sure, but she had come to realize that she was quite happy with how Konoha functioned regularly. It was easy to live with, and enjoyable. She watched as Naruto looked up from scribbling on his notepad. "Hmm, I don't think I would change anything."

Naruto's eyes widened a bit and Sasuke brought his head away from watching a couple of academy students trying to perform the basic replication jutsu, turning his attention to her. Naruto raised his voice then. "Nothing at all? You mean, you don't mind some of the tacky colours the fences have been painted, or the way some people just think their so superior because of their rank that they don't need to look at you in the eye? Not many people are like that, mind you…"

Sakura shook her head and gave a smile. "Nope, I don't think I would want to change even that. It's just, this is the Konoha I know. It's home, and I think if we changed too much it just wouldn't feel the same. Funny as it may sound, I like the tacky fences and the different attitudes of the people living here. I'm sure that there are some things that should be changed, but that will be your job, Naruto. I'll leave that up to you."

Naruto's lips broke out into a full smile and he rubbed at the back of his neck. "Heh heh, maybe I won't change that much then. We'll just have to wait and see."

Sakura gave a small laugh and Sasuke smirked. They continued their walk, until Ino's family's flower shop came into view. Sakura sighed and started to walk off to the side of the street towards it, giving a small wave to her teammates as they kept walking straight down the road.

Naruto was a little perplexed. "Hey Sakura, where are you going?" He and Sasuke stopped to wait for her answer, both of the boys turning in her direction to face her.

Sakura ran a hand through her hair and smiled at them. "I've got to go and talk with Ino, but I'll see you guys tomorrow at the carnival. We're meeting at the bridge first, right?"

Naruto nodded and started jumping on the spot. "Yeah! I can't wait! See ya tomorrow, Sakura!"

So, there Sakura stood in front of the entrance to the local flower shop, watching as her two teammates walked off together into the setting sun. Still, as she continued to watch them walk off, she couldn't help but want to yell out something. She didn't know what, but she had that feeling where you didn't want to leave but you knew it was the right thing to do.

So, Sakura called out to her teammates before they were completely out of sight.

"Hey Naruto, Sasuke! Today was fun, let's do it again sometime!"

She observed as Naruto turned around happily and yelled back a "Sure thing!" at her whilst waving his hand very quickly high in the air and Sasuke, though he didn't turn around, raised a hand and gave a small wave. She waved back and slipped inside of the flower shop, with a bright smile on her face.

Humming a cheerful tune to herself, Sakura recalled what Naruto had written down on his notepad. It had read:

'Okay, so Sasuke wants the academy to have the option of learning more stuff than we did, which is okay with me. I, well, know exactly what I wanna change, and Sakura says she likes Konoha the way it is. Better not change too much, then! But the tacky fences hafta go, I can't stand them.'

Hanging out with her team members had been real good fun, and Sakura had even enjoyed some of Naruto and Sasuke's little 'disagreements' from time to time. Though she was still quite a bit anxious about the Chuunin exams, she felt at ease with herself.

She had had a great day with Naruto and Sasuke, and as a member of Team 7, she looked forward to many great days with her teammates.

A/N: I apologize for the time it took me to up-date. I have been quite busy these past few days and have not had very much time to write. I personally wasn't all that fond of this chapter, but I had to write it. Let's just say, I'm hoping that these hand signs will make the Chuunin exams a little more 'interesting'.

As always, I thank you for reading and please give me some feed back,

Rinjii Harayumi


	8. We can almost touch the constellations

**Hi everyone! **

Sorry for the long wait. My life's been pretty hectic lately, so I haven't had much time to write. I made sure to make this chapter long as an apology of sorts.

Disclamer: I own not Naruto, nor his adorable pajamas (I love them so much!)

Enjoy,

Rinjii Harayumi

**There's No Place like Home**

**Chapter 7**

**We can almost touch the constellations**

"_I'm sorry…"_

Sasuke rolled over onto the left side of his bed, discarding the sheets he had been clutching in his hands for the most part of the night.

"_This is – you are…?"_

The sleeping shinobi slowly began to stir, the last few images from his dream filtering his mind and coming to permanently plant themselves deep inside of his self-consciousness.

"_I know I can't hold you back, but please…"_

The sun had risen long ago in the sky, with only a hint of clouds to interrupt its rays that mercilessly burned down on Konoha. The streets were already bustling about as usual; merchants were trading, shops were selling, shoppers were buying, money was being passed around freely. And even though the bustle was loud, it was not the reason for Sasuke's awakening on this fine morning.

"_No, don't say it-"_

His dream, he wanted to escape his dream. He had gone far past the nightmare and plunged his mind into a more dangerous place.

"_Please stay, stay with me."_

His thoughts. His thoughts pertaining to what Sakura had said, about premonitions, concerning what Naruto constantly yelled out to him during his dream, about leaving his team behind. They were circulating through his unconscious being, giving way to scenarios that he would never have thought of while conscious. Thoughts of him disserting Konoha, of leaving his team, of leaving a certain girl crying at the gates of the village, and a firm but gentle voice calling out to him, on the verge of pleading…

"_Stay, Sasuke."_

Jolting up from his bed of nightmares, Sasuke inhaled deeply as a sharp sensation burned its way down his throat. He shifted uneasily as he rose onto his feet for the first time in what felt like years; his nightmares seemingly left him feeling aged and more confused than the day prior. Taking another rather shaky breath, he held it, and then let it go after a couple of seconds. He lifted a hand to his forehead and let it rest there for a long moment, trying to assuage the pain throbbing its way through his mind.

Turning somewhat slower than his usual self would, Sasuke stood now facing the direction of where his desk sat, just across the room from him. He unsteadily walked over to the wooden piece of furniture, nearly collapsing into the chair when he reached his destination. He let his hands sink onto his lap, as they had been hanging of the side of the chair seconds ago. He eyed his hands as they began to tremble in his lap. Gently, he curled them into fists, then swiftly punched them both down atop his desk.

A crack floated into the air, forcing Sasuke to look at what damage he had done to the defenseless piece of old wood.

He smirked, 'What do you know, hardly a scratch.'

It was true; he had hardly even dented it. The desk had a small hole with a minimal depth to it where his left hand had hit, but nothing more than that. This desk he sat at had endured so many beatings in the past that he had begun to believe that at one time it couldn't be broken. Obviously, he had been foolish then.

But if the result of his frustration taken out on his desk didn't crack it, then just what had cracked?

Sasuke brought his eyes away from the place he had made a dent on his desk to the contents that littered its surface. Sure enough, all was still in place. A few scrolls had fallen off of the side, but no harm done in that.

Suddenly, his wandering eyes caught sight of one of the photos he had framed a while ago.

It was the first photo that Team 7 had ever taken together. There was no damage dealt to the photo itself, but rather the glass that encaged it. It had somehow split, but that's not quite what irked Sasuke. He could always replace the glass if the need should arise, which it evidently had. No what irked the Uchiha the most was just how the glass had split.

Looking at said photograph now, Sasuke couldn't help but let his mind wander. In his latest dream, he had seen a photograph. He couldn't remember why he had seen it or who it had been of, but a feeling of something he didn't quite comprehend had risen inside of him while gazing at it. Now, that feeling was back, and it felt closer to the feel of dread than any other emotion he knew of.

He brought his hands to hold either side of the frame the cracked glass was inside of. His hands had stopped trembling some time ago, but he could feel them begin to shake a little as he brought the photo of Team 7 closer to himself to look at it. His breath caught in his throat for a moment as he gazed down at it.

The line of the crack began just above Kakashi's head, then made its way down to his chin and stopped. For some peculiar reason, the crack had branched itself off, as if to separate the teammates in the picture. The crack descended all the way through Sakura, but her body was isolated from both Sasuke's and Naruto's as there were also cracks on each side of her, though Sasuke noticed that the crack on Naruto's side was much lighter than the one on his. There were also cracks on the other sides of Naruto and Sasuke, apparently completely giving the effect that they were to be divided in the future. Sasuke shook his head. That was just a stupid thought; Team 7 wouldn't actually disperse in the future…

Would it?

And there it was again, that same feeling of guilt he had begun to know oh so well after each and every one of his nightmares, after Sakura had 'forgiven' him for whatever wrong he had done.

Again the Uchiha lifted himself up from a piece of furniture in his room. He smiled to himself. There was no need to concern himself with such things. He was an avenger, after all, and killing a certain man would always come before anything else…

Yet still, even though he knew it was his life goal to kill his older brother and avenge his clan, he couldn't help but let a thought of concern for his teammates filter into his mind…

"Come on, come on! Let's get a move on!"

Saukra rubbed at her temples and sighed. "Could you be a _bit_ quieter, Naruto? For the sake of the village? For the sake of my hearing?"

Naruto turned around to find Sakura walking even slower behind him than she had been before. He halted on the spot and held up a hand in protest to her comment. "No, no and no! Come on, Sakura, my grandmother can walk faster than this!" Naruto then paused, apparently thinking about what he had just said. His face took on the look of puzzlement.

Sakura simply shook her head at him, and was quite startled when she heard a familiar voice ring out just behind her.

"You don't have a grandmother, idiot."

Sakura watched as Naruto's face almost immediately brightened. The transition from puzzlement to joy had been so fast it left her feeling a little dizzy. Naruto jumped over to where his pink-haired stood and came to rest an arm around her shoulders, smiling at the new-comber. Sakura was trying to get Naruto's arm off of her shoulders when he suddenly stated the biggest lie known to man.

"Too bad you missed it, Mr. Rash. Sakura just declared her undying love for me. And you thought that all the girls liked you!"

Sakura bashed Naruto over the head with a clenched fist, making him let go of her. She tumbled backwards, ungracefully falling onto her butt, and as soon as she landed she began to throw pebbles at the blonde. "Yeah right! You were just yelling in my ear for crying out loud! And I can't help it if I'm walking slow this morning; I just woke up two minutes ago!"

Naruto was cowering away from the enraged Sakura now, looking smaller by the second. "Sa-Sakura, I was only kidding! You can stop having a spaz now."

Even though Naruto's words were meant to do nothing more than calm her, Sakura found herself throwing larger pebbles at Naruto from where she sat. She threw him a dangerous look and cleared her throat. "When I get up, I want to see you running away as fast as you can, got it?" And true to her word, she began to raise herself up from the ground.

Naruto was laughing nervously, waving his hands over his head and trying desperately to apologize. The not-so-apologetic words fell on deaf ears. Naruto was petrified by the look that Sakura was sending him, and thusly, when she was half-way risen, he took off so fast that he left a small cloud of dirt in his place. Sakura sighed with relief and dusted her knees off with her hands. Naruto had been super hyper this morning when he came and woke her up. For some awful reason, her mother thought she had been awake when Naruto had come over to get her and so he was granted access into her room. Waking up to Naruto yelling had not been pleasant at all. Unfortunately, when she had tried to calm him down, he only started bouncing on the spot and telling her to get dressed. There had been a lot of shouting, cursing, and confusion (on Naruto's part), but in the end Sakura had agreed to follow Naruto. He kept babbling on about how he wanted to show her something on some cliff. As far as she knew, there weren't many cliffs in Konoha, but apparently Naruto knew of a spectacularly high one.

And so, the morning had progressed into these results; Naruto running off, fearing for his life and Sakura becoming very frustrated with him.

She had been so caught up with being angry with Naruto that she had gone so far to forget that Sasuke was standing behind her, so it was only natural that she would jump at the sound of his voice.

"I could hear you guys all the way back at the manor," he commented in a monotone sort of Sasuke way.

Sakura turned around to face him quickly, not bothering to smile. She was still up-set that Naruto had compared her to an old-woman.

"Well, stupid Naruto woke me up this morning and was dragging me along to go and see some cliff thing."

She looked on as her dark-haired teammates' eyebrows shot up the tiniest of a fraction. "And you actually followed him…?"

Sakura shrugged and let another sigh escape her. "Yeah, he was really keen and all, so I thought it would be better if I just went to see what he was going on about."

Sasuke smirked at her. "Right, and when was it that you 'declared your undying love' to the dobe?"

The Uchiha felt a tad bit smaller under Sakura's menacing glare. "I never did, you got that? It never happened. Never."

A slight hint of a laugh came out of his mouth, making Sakura feel much better than she had been prior to when Naruto had so rudely awoken her. 'Sasuke just kinda…laughed.'

But as soon as the trickle of a laugh had come to exit through him, the sooner it disappeared. What was she expecting, anyway? He was Sasuke Uchiha after all.

"Fine then, how would you like me to start calling you Mr. Rash?" she threatened.

Sasuke grunted. "You start doing that too and I'll…"

Sakura grinned at him, and then did the most unexpected movement. Without Sasuke's knowledge, she had appeared behind his back. She gave him a light tap on his shoulder before she mumbled very menacingly, "You'll what? Think very carefully before you speak, Sasuke, as I seem to remember Naruto giving me quite a few pictures of you while you were going through your pink phase."

Sasuke growled, finding himself in quite the predicament. He turned around on her, trying his best to keep his façade as stoic as possible. "You wouldn't," he uttered, looking her straight in the eye.

Sakura just took a couple of steps back to distance herself from him and raised her hands in an 'I-don't-know, would-I?' gesture. Something suddenly came to Sasuke and Sakura watched with growing frustration as he smirked again at her.

"Well," he began, nodding his head back in the direction of the Yamanaka flower shop in town, "I seem to know of a certain girl who works at a certain flower shop who could tell me some certain embarrassing information on a certain teammate of mine with pink hair."

Sakura was about ready to blow a gasket. She was red in the face and her eyes had a dangerous gleam to them. Had Naruto been in Sasuke's place, he would've felt the size of a pea. "Okay, okay, you win this time, but I'll think of something else! Next time, it'll be me who walks away victorious! Ha, so there!" Sakura all but spat at him, whilst Sasuke stood on the same spot, smirking as he watched her stamping her feet off down the road into town.

Once she was out of sight, Sasuke turned to the bush on his right. "You can come out now, dobe. She's gone."

Naruto came scrambling out from beneath the bushes he was hiding in, looking very afraid but at the same time quite happy. He looked all around before coming to stand net to Sasuke, obviously paranoid that Sakura would come back to finish him off. "You think she'll still come to the festival tonight?"

Sasuke began walking back to the town as well, signaling for Naruto to follow him. He waited for Naruto to catch up before answering the blonde's question. "Yeah, she's too excited about it to not come. But what the hell were you thinking this morning when you woke her up?"

Naruto gave a sheepish grin. "You'll see it later; I guess I'll keep it as a surprise until after the festival."

Sasuke placed his hands in his pockets and shrugged. "Whatever."

The night was approaching as Sakura entered her house. The smell of her and her mother's dinner had already come to rest snuggly within her. Her father had been sent out on another mission early yesterday morning, so it would be just the two of them eating together tonight.

Closing the door softly behind her, Sakura called out "Mom, I'm home," and proceeded into the kitchen where she knew two places would already be set up at the table for their evening meal. To her surprise, four places had been set. Taking a moment to process the information, Sakura could then hear her mother laughing in the back room of their house and she began to wonder who their guests were tonight. The festival was taking place on this night, so she couldn't help but wonder just who would stop by instead of eating dinner with their own family. It was a sort of tradition that the families attending the yearly festival arrive together, unless the children of the families were going together. So it was only natural to be a tad bit curious, right?

Sakura made her way to the back room as she had every intention of greeting the guests with a pleasant "Hello," or "Nice to see you again," if she knew them. Maybe they were a couple coming to visit her father from a neighboring country. God only knew who her father met during missions. She knew her father was a kind man, but more often than not he would have a visitor wind up at the Haruno's doorstep to come and say hello, stating they just so happened to be in the area and thought of him while they were there. Many of the couples she had met and been introduced to had been respectable people, and she had enjoyed having the opportunity to meet each and every one of them.

With many possibilities at hand, Sakura grew anxious to meet the people. She picked up her pace and opened the door to the back room only to find…

'Naruto…and Sasuke? The hell? Yeesh, they're not quite who I was expecting.'

Naruto, who had been apparently chatting away with Mrs. Haruno, looked over Sakura's mother's shoulder to find Sakura standing at the door and gave an enthusiastic wave. "Hi Sakura! You're mom is so nice! We just came by to see if you were ready to go and she invited us to supper! How cool is that, eh?"

Sakura smiled warmly at the sight before her, all frustrated feelings leaving her body at once. Sasuke was leaning his back against the wall she was facing, with his arms crossed over his chest and one foot tucked behind the other. Although his eyes remained closed, she could tell that he was in a rather pleasant mood. Naruto was standing pretty much in the centre of the quaint, beautifully furnished room, drawing attention to himself as he often did. Her mother was off to the side, near Sasuke, and Sakura could only guess the funny stories that Naruto was telling her mother about missions and so on. Naruto's rapid and random choice of hand movements were more than enough evidence to back up her theory.

"Welcome home, Sakura" her mother called softly, glee in her eyes. "You have quite the teammates, here. They've been entertaining me for some time, now."

Sakura let out a short laugh. "Yeah, and I bet a certain one wearing orange was blabbing away about all the stupid things I've done on missions, right?"

Naruto was shaking his head furiously behind Mrs. Haruno, probably trying to cover up what he had told. Sakura's mother just laughed as well and winked at her daughter. "I'm sure not everything. Now," she clasped her hands together and turned around to face her guests, "Who's ready for dinner?"

Naruto's extremely loud and obnoxious yell of "ME!" ultimately decided the answer for everyone.

"Wow."

There was no other word that could describe it. She couldn't think of any other word, as far and wide as her vocabulary skills reached.

"I…I've never…"

She was flabbergasted, at a complete loss for words, the whole she-bang. She just hadn't expected the festival to turn out looking so…

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! Now this is what I'm talking about! Look at that roller coaster guys, we're so gonna ride that 'til we puke! Come on, let's do it!"

Well, that wasn't quite the description she had been working on in her mind, nor was it her idea of how to spend a night at Konoha's annual festival, but she had to admit that the roller coaster was very tempting. If anything, Sakura thought Konoha had really out-done themselves this year with this carnival. It all looked so grand.

"Hn, you'll be the only one throwing up, loser. I won't throw up."

And so it was happening again. Team 7 was giving off its finest, most honest image known to the inhabitants of the village thus far. With a completely 'zoned-out' Sakura standing just behind her two bickering teammates, Naruto doing most of the bickering as Sasuke was thankfully not making much of a contribution, the three-man team stood just outside the entrance of the carnival.

Sakura was staring at it all, taking in the greatness of it all. So many different rides had been added this year, along with many more stands and new activities. The satisfying sound of children's laughter was floating through the air, the slightest of curses coming from those who had just lost at another game as their partner's laughed at the sore losers drifted to her ears, and the echo of the noises produced by the rides made her feel as if she was stepping into a new life; where there was no future and no past. All was forgotten, and there was no need to try and remember any of it. This was simply a time to relax. To reminisce in the comfort and joy of having either good friends or family to spend the night with. A chance to let all faults slip away,

And embrace the feel of being apart of a caring village.

Sakura sighed and inhaled deeply, taking in the scent of fresh pastries, noodles, fish and more.

Yes, this year's carnival was definitely going to be a good one.

"Get off of me Naruto!"

Naruto was holding onto Sasuke's left arm, dragging him back in the direction of which they had just come from. Sakura had disappeared some time ago in search of food, thus leaving Naruto and Sasuke to _enjoy_ one another's company. Team 7 had already ridden all of the carnival's rides that would be closed down after dark. Naruto had made sure that they had gone on every single ride, much to a certain raven-haired teammate. He had not enjoyed the 'stimulating' tea-cup ride as much Naruto had. In fact, throughout that entire ride, even with children smiling all around him, the Uchiha had a scowl plastered on his face. Who goes on the tea-cup ride anyway?

"Oh, come on Sasuke. The sun's not down yet, and there's a roller coaster calling our names. One more time, come on!"

Sasuke was trying as best he could to brush his ever-so annoying teammate off of him, but Naruto was apparently very determined to get the Uchiha to go for one last ride on the dreadfully thrilling roller coaster with him before it was too dark outside and the technicians had to close it down. Of course, Sasuke knew why Naruto wanted to get him to ride it one final time before the next festival, and the reason was so ridiculous that it made Sasuke want to pummel Naruto with an iron fist, but as always Sasuke found a way to maintain his cool. A cool that was speedily approaching its expiration date.

"Quit it, dobe. I told you already, that thing can't make me throw up."

There was a sudden puff of smoke as Naruto disappeared and re-appeared.

Never mind the roller coaster, Sasuke thought he was about to throw up out of disgust.

Naruto had preformed his 'sexy' jutsu, whilst still being latched onto Sasuke's left arm, and began blowing kisses at him. "Oh, come on Sasuke," Naruto began in his feminine voice reserved specially for this jutsu, "I'll make sure you have a good time, if you know what I mean."

Sasuke inwardly cringed, quickly and swiftly dealing a serious blow to the top of Naruto's head. Naruto was instantly sent flying off of Sasuke's arm, landing a few feet away from the rather angry looking Uchiha. Sakura came back then, holding a cup of ramen in each hand and balancing a third on her head. She first looked at Naruto lying on the ground, then at Sasuke who was still standing up. She didn't need to be told what had taken place here.

"Well, if you guys could stop your lovely conversation for just one second," Sasuke turned to give Sakura a cold look and Naruto raised his head off of the dirt on the ground to stick out his tongue at her, "I've brought some ramen, my treat." At this, Naruto immediately brought his tongue back into his mouth and smiled, but Sasuke didn't lose his cold façade. He was, no doubt, still mad with Naruto for whatever the blond shinobi had done.

As Naruto and Sasuke took their ramen from Sakura's hands, Sakura took her own ramen off of her head and plopped down on the ground to have a seat. Funny, they had forgotten to put out tables this year, but she didn't mind all that much. She was having a blast!

Both of her teammates took a seat on either side of the pink-haired girl and began to chow-down. It had been a while since they had eaten their early supper, and all three (even though Sasuke would never admit to it just to spite Naruto) were very hungry. Supper had been advanced three hours earlier at the Haruno residence just so that Sakura and her teammates would be able to get a chance to try all the rides. Each ride had seemed more thrilling than the last, with the exception of the 'kiddy' rides that Naruto insisted they go on, leaving the teammates with a sense of excitement, though some showed it more easily than others.

"Tee hee, thanks for the ramen, Sakura. It was great! Ah, nothing gives me more energy than ramen, that's for sure!" Naruto all but sang, bouncing up from his spot on the ground. Sasuke shook his head and Sakura groaned. She shouldn't have bought ramen; Naruto had enough energy as it was. He really didn't need any help what so ever in that department, and Sakura was almost positive that Sasuke was thinking along the same lines as she was.

A sudden voice came out from inside the tent that Team 7 was sitting behind.

"Hey boss! I found you!"

Konohamaru came scrambling from beneath the tent, obviously exiting with much difficulty from its interior. Once he had completely emerged, and Team 7 was finished blinking at him with blank faces, he adjusted the goggles atop his head and gave a thumbs-up sign.

Naruto started to walk over to him, a hand on each hip. "Hey there Konohamaru, why'd you come out from underneath that tent? Pretty suspicious behavior if you ask me. What're you up to?"

The youngest of the four gave an all-knowing grin at his 'boss's' question. "Well," he began, whilst mimicking Naruto and placing both his hands on his hips as well, "You see, that's funny you should ask that, I was just-"

And as Konohamaru had feared, a nervous voice began to ring out clearly through the festival's crowd, and a man came rushing down towards the poor grandson of the third Hokage, shoving people to the ground as he made his speedy way down to the boy with a name that was not meant to be forgotten.

"Honorable Grandson! Where have you gone! Well, you cannot hide from an expert ninja like me, I will find you!" Ebisu, Konohamaru's mentor shouted over the bustle of the festivity they were attending, some people around him covering their ears as a means to block out any sound of his shrilling voice. He was making quite the spectacle of himself, he really was.

While Naruto watched the older ninja tear up the scene looking for Konohamaru, a sly smile came to rest on his lips. He nodded his head towards the man whom could not see them as they were behind a tent. "You're hiding from him again aren't you Konohamaru?" Konohamaru lowered his head, but quickly raised it when he felt a hand ruffling his hair.

"It's okay, I don't like him either, thank the mighty Hokages that he's not my sensei." Naruto sighed with relief. If only he had known that one day, even if it was just for a day or two, he himself would be studying under the authority of Ebisu, the terribly annoying, know-it-all ninja. Maybe then he wouldn't have been thanking the Hokages…

Konohamaru sighed as well, although his sigh was of genuine distress. "He's been following me all day, Boss. Now it's pretty much night and he's still on my tail-"

Naruto swiftly cut the younger boy off. "It's almost night!" The blonde then raised his head to the sky and had, from what Sasuke gathered, some sort of nervous spasm that had affected every nervous cell in his body.

Sasuke shrugged Naruto's weird movements off, asking why this night was so important with a sort of 'I didn't ask you' way that only Sasuke himself could pull off. "So?"

Naruto's head whipped around to where his teammates were still sitting on the ground at the back of the tent, a crazy look in his eyes that almost smothered the bright blue of them. "SO! We've gotta go!"

It had happened so fast in Sakura's mind. Naruto had waved good-bye to Konohamaru with the most rapid wave she had ever seen in her life, so rapid that his hand had almost completely disappeared, and then Naruto had grabbed a hold of hers and Sasuke's hands, pulling them in the direction of the gates of Konoha.

"Naruto, what the hell are you doing? If this is about Ichiraku's, it's the other way!" Sakura yelled over the gushes of wind, and just when she thought she would have to yell for a second time, Naruto called back over his shoulder to her.

"To the cliff thingy!"

Great, that really didn't help her all that much.

She was pondering about what Naruto meant when a third voice piped up over the sound of the wind, barely reaching her ears. "He said it was a surprise." Sasuke stated, trying to get his hand out of Naruto's grip, but evidently the attempt was futile and so Sasuke's hand remained in contact with that of the other boy.

Sakura just nodded. She should have expected Naruto would have something planned for this night. It was, after all the last night before the Chuunin exams, and who would Naruto be if he didn't do something different? Obviously, not Naruto.

As they went flying through the gates and out into the unprotected world, Sakura nearly blew a gasket. "WHAT! We left the village, you moron! We could get in some serious trouble!"

Naruto only turned his head slightly so that Sakura could see one of his eyes, then he winked at her. Over time, Sakura had come to trust in the fact that when Naruto winked, the small gesture meant that everything they were doing was safe. She sure hoped so, otherwise the Hokage would be furious should he ever find out about their little 'trip' from the village's secure walls.

Sasuke had been, much to his dismay, actually wondering about what kind of surprise Naruto had planned for their team for a good portion of the day. And as they neared a high cliff that neither he nor Sakura had ever seen before in either of their lives, all the pieces began to fall into place.

Naruto landed gently on the grass covered cliff, taking a seat at its ledge and patting the ground beside him. Sakura, who had been too busy looking around at their new surroundings, was startled when a warm hand grabbed her own. She had thought that said hand would've no doubt belonged to Naruto, but to her surprise it was Sasuke's. Maybe he was feeling a bit more open than usual…

Sakura sat down beside Naruto, Sasuke sitting on the other side of the pink-haired kunoichi.

And there it was, a beautiful scene with Team 7 painted in the middle of the canvas. There was no doubt in her mind that this moment would be one of Sakura's favourite memories, sitting with her teammates, enjoying their company, looking up at the sky…!

"Wow! Look at all the stars! I've never seen so many…" Sakura trailed off, absolutely captivated by the night's sky.

"Hn," Sasuke muttered rather quietly, his sole contribution to Sakura's attempt at starting a conversation.

Naruto was happily nodding away, his feet swinging rapidly over the edge of the cliff with a constant rhythm. "I knew you guys would like it, so I asked Kakashi-sensei if it was alright with him to do this, and he was all "Sure, just don't get caught" or whatever. Um, yeah! So I guessed that meant it was okay…"

As Naruto's explanation came to an end, Sasuke's face rivaled a blank canvas and Sakura's eyes appeared to have an angry fire in them. But hey, they were already outside of the village, so why not just stick around for a little while? It wasn't like they weren't going to come back or anything.

And so there they sat, three friends as well as teammates, a trio who would risk their own lives for each other's, beneath a blanket of stars that felt so close to the ground they sat on. With all of their heads tilted back as they continued to gaze up at the star-lit sky, their minds taking a moment to forget all troubles and worries in the world, they felt that if they stretched out their arms to the sky, they would almost be able to touch the constellations. Maybe one day when they had grown up, should they ever come back to this cliff, they would be able to reach out and touch those very same star formations. It seemed that the world was just made up of 'maybes' for this team. Maybe if Sasuke had out a bit more trust in his relationship with his teammates, he wouldn't have to keep suffering in silence. Maybe Sakura shouldn't have entered the Chuunin exams this year. Maybe Naruto should have shared more with the people he had come to care so much for, maybe he should have confided in them more often. Maybe if they had done all those things, and had trusted one another more than they wanted to, they wouldn't fear the future and what was to come with it. Even so, they had grown tremendously as a team, and they all knew that when on the battlefield the trust they had in each other was greater than most teams could ever have. Somewhere along the way, they had come to truly respect one another, even if at times they didn't show it.

Not taking her eyes off of the stars, Sakura gave a content sigh.

Even though the stars were beautiful and the cliff was an excellent spot, she felt that this place wouldn't have meant very much to her if it hadn't been for the people sitting with her right now. Her friends were what really made this place special to her, and she knew that it was a bit cliché of her to be thinking this, but she wouldn't trade the feeling their friendship brought her for the world.

Her friends had come to be so important to her.

Her teammates…

She hoped they would forever remain as friends.

Closing her eyes for a brief second, she held her hands to her chest and made a single wish.

Naruto tilted his head back in her direction, asking curiously, "What're you doing, Sakura?"

Sakura opened her eyes and smiled at the blond. She took his left hand in her right, and Sasuke's right hand in her left. Of course, her action obtained a raised eyebrow from the Uchiha, but she didn't care.

Sakura turned her head back in the direction of the sky, tilting it back once more and finally responding to Naruto's question. "Nothing Naruto, nothing at all."

A/N So, there's another chapter. I apologize for the time that it took me to up-date, but I've been very busy lately. As I've said before, life happens to us all. Unfortunately, life seems to happen to me at the worst of times.

Anyway, did anyone catch the first episode of Bleach the other night? It was SO good! I'd already read the first volume of the manga, but I had no idea that the show would be coming out so soon. For anyone who doesn't know, Bleach is also done by Masashi Kishimoto, the same man who created our beloved Naruto and co.

As always, thanks for reading and please review,

Rinjii Harayumi


	9. SORRY!

Greetings fellow Naruto junkies (and for those who know nothing about Naruto…may I ask _what _you're doing here?)

Anyways, I realized the other day as I was shifting through some old documents on my oh-so lovely pc that I hadn't updated this fic in quick a while, so guess what everyone, I'm going to start working on the next chapter!

**YAY!**

Hopefully it will come out okay.

'Til next time,

Rinjii Harayumi


	10. Breath for me

A/N Okay, so now that I've finally updated (sorry guys, I know it's been a while), I've decided that I'll be skipping the filler in this story. As someone pointed out, writing the filler could potentially bore everyone to death.

Disclaimer: I own not Naruto nor his lovely crew, but I tell you I own the sandals! The sandals are mine!(I actually looked for a pair, sadly enough...)

So, let's get on withe the show!

Enjoy,

Rinjii Harayumi

* * *

There's No Place like Home

Chapter 8

Breath for me

"Come on, Sakura, breath! Don't give up, not yet! Breath, dammit!"

Naruto's voice rang out loudly through the forest, and he knew that he was probably giving away his team's hiding place, but that was the last thing on his mind. He needed Sakura to inhale, needed her to take a deep breath and let life flow back into her body once more.

Fear was evident in the blond shinobi's eyes as he shook his pink-haired teammate somewhat forcefully. Hidden inside the hollow of an old tree, he held her close to him, shaking her shoulders in an attempt to wake her.

Team seven, including many other shinobi teams had passed the written part of the chuunin examination and had therefore advanced to the second stage; survival in a forest known as the forest of death, a place so formidable you could die from just about everything that grew in the area (or so many people had said). After having spent only a single day in the woods, Team seven had already been attacked thrice, the last battle having been the worst thus far. Hence Sakura's condition, which seemed to have taken a turn for the worst.

"Shut it, Dobe. You're giving our location away." Announced Sasuke from the hollow of the tree beside the one Naruto and Sakura were currently inside of. Little did Sasuke know that Sakura was no longer breathing.

Just ten minutes ago all had been well in the young Haruno's world. She had been walking quietly along a river, trying to find fish to prepare for her team's meal as they had been allowed no rations for this part of the exam. After having found a small school of fish swimming close to the shore, Sakura had tried to catch them using chakra strings like fishing wire, and had been somewhat successful. She had caught one and a half fish. Apparently the chakra strings had cut one of the fish in half.

'Oops' had been the only thought on her mind then, at that moment before she had been ambushed by the ninja from the Sound.

Seeing as Sakura had been caught off guard, she had had no time to react to the kunai driving down form the sky at her throat. In slow motion she had felt one pierce the side of her neck, grazing the skin just enough to draw blood and leave a long mark on her tender flesh. She had been stunned by the attack, and her only reaction had been dropping the fish she had just caught. A body had appeared behind her quickly after she had dropped her meal, kicking her square across the back, kneeing her in the spine.

Gasping for air, Sakura had done the only thing she knew how at that point.

She had screamed, wild and fiery, a beast like sound had ripped from her bleeding throat and she had drawn a kunai of her own. She had to fend for herself at the moment, she knew, because Naruto and Sasuke had gone of to scout out the area to ensure it was safe to rest up there. Unfortunately, the two had somehow missed the Sound ninja that had cloaked themselves in the leaves of the trees just above Sakura.

Thrusting the knife like weapon backwards to the person who had just kneed her in the spine, Sakura whirled around on the spot when she found that they had disappeared.

Breathing hard, she jumped up into the treetops above her, searching for her enemies. She had known it was in fact the Sound shinobi attacking her as she had managed to sneak a peek at her attacker, and there atop his forehead, lo and behold had been the infamous music note headband that seemed to be following her team around persistently.

Gripping firmly to the branch beneath her, Sakura brought her fingers to her neck to inspect the damage. There was bleeding, but it was minimal, nothing she couldn't handle. Naruto would probably scold her about being so reckless later, though.

Yet, as fate would have it, despite her strong hold on the tree's branch, she had been thrown off of it and back onto the ground, a sharp stone cutting through her blue sandals on her left foot and tearing at her foot's skin. A growl erupted from her then, daring whoever was there to try and hit her again. Sadly, she had never seen the Sound shinobi sneak up behind her. That was when she had been struck by a fist countless times at the back of her head. That had been when she had collapsed onto the rocks and stones beneath her at the river's edge. That had been where Naruto and Sasuke had found her, lying motionlessly on the ground with a pale face and closed eyes. Naruto had immediately leapt to her side, Sasuke a second behind him.

And that was how they had all ended up in the hollows of trees, running from an enemy neither Sasuke nor Naruto had seen. That was why Sakura had stopped breathing.

"Shit Sasuke, she's not breathing! What do I do?"

Sasuke could hear the panic in Naruto's voice then and knew he had to do something or it meant Sakura could lose her life. Cursing at her misfortune, Sasuke stealthily climbed into the hollow of Naruto's tree, taking Sakura from him. "Stop shaking her, idiot. That's only going to make it worse."

Naruto had reluctantly handed Sakura over to the dark-haired boy. He looked around at the opening of the tree, making sure no one was waiting to ambush them like they had Sakura. "You can help her, right? Help her Sasuke!"

Sasuke had already been going through the things that he could do to possibly help air circulate in her lungs. There was always mouth-to-mouth, and he shuddered at the very thought, but he had a feeling it was going to come down to that. Besides, this meant absolutely nothing in terms of their relationship, only that he would be saving her life. Yeah, so it wasn't so bad…

Oh boy, he really didn't want to do this, but he figured that Naruto would just mess it up and kill Sakura, so he had no choice.

"Help me lay her down on the grass, and move quickly."

Naruto, obviously confused asked no questions and did as he was instructed. Only when he saw Sasuke lowering his face to Sakura's did he speak up.

"Wh-what are you doing" he had all but squeaked, apparently getting the wrong idea. Sasuke really felt like smacking him then, but he knew he didn't have the time.

"Just trust me" he had hissed out at the other boy, proceeding in applying the first phase of the medical exercise. He had tilted her head back slightly to open her airway, then after having taken a deep breath, as softly as possible had placed his lips to hers. The first thing that he had noticed was the curling sensation of fire he felt coming to pulse through his lips, spreading through his body so rapidly he was somewhat frightened. Then, remembering why their lips were connected, he let out a steady breath in Sakura's mouth. He then moved his ear to her chest to make sure she still had a heartbeat. Luckily, she did.

Naruto stared in horror at the scene that was displaying itself before him. He felt as if he was frozen in time and only when Sakura began coughing did time begin to move normally once more.

Upon hearing Sakura's cough, Sasuke moved off of her in an instant, recollecting himself and wiping a slight sweat that had come to rest upon his brow.

"Sakura!" Naruto had exclaimed, overjoyed that his teammate was alright. He had quickly wrapped his arms around her, giving her a light hug. Sakura was still coughing, and when she had finished her fit, brought a hand to the back of her head to rub the places she had been hit the most. Naruto had spotted the blood on her neck sometime ago, but he was waiting for her to catch her breath completely before he brought the subject up. The two sat quietly together, Sakura occasionally coughing every now and then, Sasuke a little ways off to their right, leaning against a tree's base.

Yet still, a question was clawing at the young Uchiha's mind as he sat in the damp grass, watching as Naruto helped Sakura sit up.

Sasuke placed a finger to his lips, the sensation of a gentle fire still lingering upon them.

What the hell had that been about?

* * *

End of chapter 8.

OMG!!! Sasuke gave Sakura mouth-to-mouth!!! I hope someone took pictures.

Anyways, a little on the short side, not my best either, but the end of school is coming up soon, which means more time (or not, depending on vacation/traveling).

Well, 'til next time,

Rinjii Harayumi


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